A white Tulane University employee says he was a victim of racial and age discrimination.
Edward Dane Brassette filed his complaint September 23 in federal court against the Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund doing business as Tulane University.
Brassette, who is 59, began working at Tulane in March 2007 as a commercial carpenter. In 2013, he was promoted to painting supervisor overseeing completion of assignments, reviewing employee time management, evaluating painters and counseling employees.
When a paint department employee was found violating a rule or regulation, Brassette says he had to prepare a staff counseling report that was submitted to Human Resources representative Sharon Valle, who is Black, for review. If she approved the report, the employee was notified, and disciplinary action was taken. If she rejected the report or failed to respond, no action was taken.
On August 16, 2022, Brassette says he reported Leroy Clanton, who is Black, for failing to record his billable hours in the software. On August 19, 2022, he says he reported Perry Harris, who also is Black, for failing to perform any of his job duties for the first 30 hours of his shift. Both reports were submitted to Valle on August 22, 2022.
On August 30, 2022, Brassette reported Clanton for failing to record his billable hours again. And on September 1, 2022, he and Assistant Supervisor Leandro Sobrino observed Triney Matthews, who is Black, as well as Clanton and Harris failing to perform their job duties. Brassette notified his direct manager Willery Autin, who told him to prepare a report for each of them. All of those were submitted to Valle on September 2, 2022.
That same day, Brassette says he emailed Valle about the status of his previous reports, but he says he didn’t receive a response. On September 16, 2022, he says he emailed Valle again about the reports. But he says he again did not receive a response.
Brassette says he filed multiple similar reports in October and November about Clanton and Harris, including one in which Harris screamed profanity at him in front of witnesses. He followed up with Valle about these reports as well, never hearing back from her.
On December 2, 2022, Brassette attended a meeting with a university vice president, Autin, Manager Guido Salvatierra and Valle after Clanton issued a complaint against him for harassment.
In the meeting, Valle said Brassette “is only writing up Black people and not the Hispanics,” according to the complaint.
“Plaintiff refused the allegation and clarified that he writes people up for their violations not because of their race,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff made a complaint of discrimination that Tulane management are directing him to write up Hispanic employees for adhering to their job duties while rejecting his attempts to issue write-ups against African American employees.”
Brassette says he wasn’t given a written disciplinary action following Clanton’s complaint, but he was ordered to attend management development program meetings.
On December 6, 2022, he says he emailed OIE to report previous verbal harassment he endured from Harris. On December 19, 2022, he says he received an email to attend a meeting with OIE representative Terina Walker. Three days later, his complaint against Harris was assigned to Tiffany Smith, who referred it to Valle for handling.
He says he received a response from Valle about his reports after 128 days. She recommended Brassette undergo additional training and attend a conflict resolution meeting.
On March 13, 2023, Brassette received an email from Walker saying “more likely than not that you engaged in the reported conduct which is a violation of Tulane policy” while failing to state the specific policy that was violated.
On April 3, 2023, Brassette met with Autin and Valle. He was terminated for “failing to treat co-workers and others with courtesy, dignity and respect.” Autin requested he be suspended instead, but Valle refused, saying, “He is being fired because he has a history of writing up Black people.”
Brassette says Harris and Clanton never were disciplined and remained employed. And before his termination, Brassette says he never was given any written disciplinary action or reports in his 16 years of employment.
Brassette says he was subjected to racial discrimination, age discrimination and retaliation. He seeks compensatory damages for back pay, front pay, liquidated damages, general damages, specific damages for lost compensation and job benefits he would have received. He also seeks punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees, related expenses and other relief.
He is being represented by Christopher A. Minias of The Minias Law Firm in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 2:24-cv-2311