JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REACHES SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT IN SCHOOL
TEACHER'S RELIGION & NATIONAL ORIGIN HARASSMENT CASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of Justice today announced the settlement of an employment discrimination lawsuit alleging religious harassment against a Jewish former public school teacher in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The settlement agreement between Louis Owen, the Department of Justice and L'Anse Area Schools, was filed today, and must be approved by the federal district court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to become final.

Mr. Owen, a veteran teacher of more than 30 years, filed his lawsuit in federal district court in March 2000 after an investigation by the Detroit office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission concluded that his complaint had merit. The Department of Justice intervened in October 2000, alleging that the L'Anse Area Schools subjected Mr. Owen to religious harassment while he was employed by the school district.

In the lawsuit, the Department of Justice alleged that Mr. Owen had been the target of numerous incidents of anti-Semitic harassment by his students, including the drawing and etching of swastikas and hate messages such as "Die Jews," "Kill Owen," "KKK," and "White Power"in and around his classroom on multiple occasions and the placement of a hangman's noose on his classroom door. The Department of Justice also alleged that the school district failed to take effective measures to remedy the harassment and to keep it from recurring despite Mr. Owen's repeated complaints.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Mr. Owen will be paid $265,000. In addition, the school district will review and revise its policies; train its employees to recognize, investigate and address harassment and discrimination; and educate its students about the inappropriateness of harassment and discrimination. Further, faculty and staff of the school district will be required to report actual or suspected incidents of harassment or discrimination to appropriate school officials. If approved, the Department of Justice will monitor the school district's compliance with the settlement agreement for three years.

"The Department of Justice intends to hold employers responsible for permitting an atmosphere where religious harassment against employees is tolerated," said Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "School administrators need to understand and students need to be taught that harassment on the basis of religion is discrimination that is against the law, and schools need to teach tolerance for the differences in our diverse society."

"I am pleased that the joint efforts of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division and the EEOC under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act have produced a resolution which eliminates harassment and discrimination on the basis of religion in an underserved part of the state of Michigan," said James Neely, Director of the Detroit District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

More information about the Civil Rights Act and other federal employment laws is available on the Department of Justice internet site at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/emp/index.html.

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