LAKE CHARLES - After a long pattern of alleged instances, the City of Jennings is facing civil charges from a resident who says she was discriminatorily terminated in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, according to documents filed on Feb. 16 in the Lake Charles federal court.
Plaintiff Deidre L. Sanders was a public employee working in landscape maintenance for the city. She is a Black lesbian who was 56 years old at the time of the incident resulting in her suit.
Sanders says she was victim to inappropriate harassment in the workplace due to her sexual orientation. The plaintiff also alleges that she was passed over for promotions, and that less qualified, younger, less experienced Caucasians were chosen for the advancement opportunities.
In March 2020, Sanders was cutting grass on a roughly 15-acre lot with a coworker, Dwight Dayton. Her supervisor, Ira Bertrand, allegedly had a history of treating her differently than white or male comparable employees.
For this job that normally required five people, Sanders was working with one other coworker, who was suddenly escorted off the premises for an unplanned drug test, leaving Sanders to handle an extremely large piece of land, the suit says.
Sanders was forced by Bertrand to work the assignment alone to the point where she was experiencing extreme medical distress, the suit says.
The suit also states that Dayton's random drug test was not conducted in line with city policy and was only ordered because he is Black.
Sanders says she was wrongfully demanded to produce a signed HIPAA release to allow her to return to work after her medical emergency, a demand that had not historically been asked of other employees.
After filing a Charge of Discrimination with the EEOC, Sanders received word that she'd been terminated.
Sanders is charging the city with one cause of age discrimination in employment, one cause of racial discrimination in employment, one cause of sexual orientation harassment discrimination in employment, one count of retaliation, one count of hostile work environment, one count of respondeat superior and one count of violation of the U.S. Constitution.
A trial jury is demanded. Sanders is represented by Sudduth and Associates, LLC, of Lake Charles. She is requesting damages for medical care, mental anguish, lost salary and benefits, legal fees and other judgements.