Elite Catholic Cincinnati Prep School Summit Country Day: Jewish Bias Lawsuit Dropped By Former Worker



Prep School Pinched By Sour Economy

 CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A private prep school that caters to wealthy and prominent families in Cincinnati admits it took a major financial hit and had to lay off staff during the economic collapse that started under former President George W. Bush.  The details surfaced in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court filings.  They came just before longtime Summit Country Day librarian Alice Finkelstein dropped her religious bias lawsuit that asserted she was targeted for dismissal because of her Jewish faith.  Throughout more than a year of litigation, the elite Catholic prep school -- whose alums include HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- denied all allegations of discrimination.  Finkelstein was laid off in 2009 after 10 years at the school.  Finkelstein claimed she was subjected to harassment and retaliation at the Catholic school, and said that a co-worker once told her, "Jews don't believe in the power of prayer."  She also said she was not given time off for Jewish holidays.

Summit said it let her go solely due to a deteriorating financial condition.  It said the "collapse of the economy" in the fall of 2008 was behind staff reductions at the K-12 school.  Here's Summit lawyer Paul Dorger's recounting of events [from a motion to have the case tossed out of court]:

"Summit hired Jerald Jellig as its head of School in July 2007.  One of the tasks he was charged with was to reduce costs.  At the end of the 2007-2008 academic year, Jellig reduced the work force by terminating the employment of several staff members.  Plaintiff's position was retained, and she was not effected by this first reduction in staff.

"In October 2008, Summit experienced a deteriorating financial situation as a result of the collapse of the economy.  At that time, Summit anticipated significant drops in both charitable gifts and student enrollment for the following academic year.  Additionally, Summit's investment committee indicated that the school's endowment would suffer considerable losses,  By early 2009, Summit determined that further personnel cuts were necessary.  Therefore, at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year, it was necessary for Jellig to let go of more employees . . .

"On June 8, 2009, Jellig informed plaintiff that her contract would not be renewed due to budget cuts,  Jellig gave plaintiff a letter detailing Summit's severance offer which was based on the same severance formula as the other employees whose employment was terminated by the RIF.  Jellig was unaware of the faith traditions of his staff members selected for layoff, and he did not know that plaintiff is Jewish."

Court records show Finkelstein voluntarily dropped the lawsuit in mid-September.  She did so without prejudice, which means she has the option of refiling the case within a year.  Information about the school is available by clicking here.

U. of Dayton Research: N-Word Often Used By Whites

DAYTON (TDB) -- A University of Dayton sociology professor has written a book with a Texas A&M colleague that says whites use the N-word often in settings where blacks are not present. The researchers say ugly racial stereotypes are commonly expressed during whites-only conversations. In short, the book contends people of color are disparaged today with the kind of offensive language what was openly used in the 1940s.

''People argue that the N-word no longer has racial meaning, but it's very common and very prevalent and they do seem to know the racial significance of it," said Leslie H. Picca, an assistant professor of sociology at the Catholic school in Ohio. "These are white, educated students -- the kind of people we generally believe are less racist. It was heartbreaking, just heartbreaking, to see how frequent, how common and how harshly these racial stereotypes are being perpetuated."

Her findings are based on written journals maintained during the 2002-2003 school year by 626 white college students. They students were on campuses across the nation, but the sites have not yet been made public. The co-author of the book is Joe R. Feagin at Texas A&M. Their book is Two Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage. It is due for release this spring by Routledge Publishing.

The authors said they found one student who heard the n-word 27 times in a single day, and they conclude that whites talk about blacks they way they did over the past 40 to 60 years. The project was designed to examine how whites used racially offensive language when they were in private groups. Most of the students were between ages 18 and 25, and nearly all grew up in the post-civil rights era.

Feagin said 9,000 accounts were collected in the journals, and about 75 percent denigrated blacks, 10 percent were aimed at Hispanics and the rest were offensive toward Arabs, Jews and other groups. He delivered a lecture in 2005 that DISCUSSED the findings before they were prepared for the upcoming book.

Picca said in a school news release about her research that white women students sometimes object to prejudicial language, but the objectors themselves can become targets for insults. Her study about white in private moments contradicts the findings of public opinion surveys of whites who say they have become more tolerant. The University of Dayton's news release about the forthcoming book is available HERE.