MASON CITY, Iowa – A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against some Mason City school administrators but a former employee’s claims of discrimination and retaliation against the entire school district remains in place.
Jodie Anderson filed a lawsuit in July 2018 against the Mason City school district, Superintendent David Versteeg, school board president Jodi Draper, and district human resources director Thomas Dryzcimski. Anderson was hired as the district’s human resources director in July 2015 and resigned in June 2017. She says she complained about the school district paying men more than woman and was retaliated against for it.
Versteeg, Draper, and Dryzcimski have now been dismissed as defendants in the lawsuit. Anderson herself asked to have Dryzcimski removed in September 2018. A judge has now ordered the same for Versteeg and Draper.
In the decision, the judge states that Versteeg was not hired until a month after Anderson’s resignation and that Draper, as an individual member, cannot be held liable for the actions of the Mason City school board as a whole.
A trial date for Anderson’s lawsuit against Mason City Community Schools has not been set.
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