A federal jury has awarded the former women’s basketball coach at Texas Southern University $730,000 after she successfully demonstrated that the school retaliated against her, after she complained about gender discrimination and advocated for gender equity.
Plaintiff Surina Dixon was hired in March 2008 by interim athletic director Johnnie Cole and school president John Rudley. She was subsequently fired a few months later by new athletic director Charles McClelland.
She sued in September of 2008, alleging that the school retaliated against her when she complained about gender discrimination and advocated for gender equity, pursuant to Title IX and Title VII. For example, Dixon claimed that she was offered a one-year contract at $75,000, while the new men’s basketball coach, Tony Harvey, was given a five-year contract at $150,000 a year. In addition, she also claimed that she agreed to a four-year contract, which was allegedly changed by McClelland to a one-year deal.
In an interview with a local television station in Houston, Dixon said she believed she was fired “because I questioned the terms of the contract, the years, the salary, which were a huge gender difference and because I was questioning those things, I think that I was terminated based on sex discrimination and retaliation.”
In a federal lawsuit, Dixon sought “equitable relief, back pay, and front pay, compensatory damages, attorney’s fees, expert witness fees, taxable court costs, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.”
Dixon, who is now a high school teacher in Memphis, Tenn., told Houston’s KRIV-TV that she’s “excited” about the jury verdict, calling it “a great day for women in sports.”
Dixon’s attorney, Todd Slobin, Partner at Shellist Lazarz LLP, chimed in that he was satisfied with the verdict, and planned “to seek interest and attorney’s fees on that money.”
TSU, which is said to be contemplating an appeal, had a different opinion, noting in a statement released to the media: “We regret that the verdict came in this way. We have strong policies against discrimination and retaliation and we certainly did not do that in this case.”
