NEW ORLEANS – The Tangipahoa Parish School System continues to be plagued with lawsuits over alleged discrimination, with another employee filing a lawsuit in a Louisiana federal court.
Plaintiff Rev. Lemore Stewart filed his lawsuit July 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The school system, located in Amite, La., is the only named defendant.
The lawsuit marks the third filed in federal court in recent weeks alleging discrimination by school system employees.
In June, a former Tangipahoa Parish teacher claimed she was discriminated against and ultimately terminated by the school system due to her neurological condition.
Nearly a week later, a former school system employee alleged that the reorganization of its transportation department, which left him jobless, was “racially motivated.”
Now, Stewart, in his filing, alleges he was subjected to “intentional” differential treatment because of his race, including “disparate discipline, disparate work requirements, denial of advancement opportunities, and racially hostile workplace conditions.”
Stewart, who is Black, is a licensed minister and community leader. He resides in Ponchatoula, La.
“Despite Plaintiff’s satisfactory performance and qualifications, he was excluded from professional advancement and subjected to increased scrutiny, including retaliatory conduct after raising discriminatory conditions,” the five-page complaint states.
He claims his filings with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and “requests for relief” were met with silence and “continued” discriminatory conditions by the Tangipahoa Parish School System.
He noted in his lawsuit that he had to take a day off from work for a medical appointment resulting from the stress caused by the hostile work environment.
Stewart claims his white female supervisor, Kim Notariana, was closely monitoring him.
Notariana, he alleges, told him in a May 17, 2024 conversation that she “knows his kind” and that she is “waiting for it to play out,” referring to his EEOC complaint.
“These comments were racially charged and retaliatory,” the complaint states.
Stewart alleges Notariana also warned him to “listen to her and not mess up his future as a young Black man,” telling him he was a “hot commodity” because “people will hire him for diversity.”
“These remarks are racially inappropriate and intimidating in the context of his employment and EEOC complaint,” the filing states.
Stewart claims he submitted internal grievances and filed documentation of these incidents, but they have not been properly addressed or resolved.
He is asking the federal court to retroactively appoint him to an administrative position, with back pay and benefits, and $500,000 in compensatory damages. He also seeks punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and pre- and post-judgment interest.
Rev. Charles E. Brumfield Jr. of Breaux Bridge, La., is representing Stewart in the action.
Brumfield also is representing plaintiff Demetris M. Garner – who claims she was terminated due to her Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a neurological condition – in her lawsuit against the Tangipahoa Parish School System.
