COPY OF ARTICLE IN THE DAILY RECORD 01/10/2012

Jefferson teacher wins $509,000 in age-discrimination case

WRITTEN BY Peggy Wright, Staff Writer for the Daily Record Jan 10, 2012 7:26AM
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012301090019

A former Jefferson Township High School honors chemistry teacher has been awarded $509,000 by a jury that found she was subjected to age discrimination and quit in 2008 after finding herself in a hostile work environment.

Sparta resident Jeanne O’Neill, now 63, taught chemistry in Jefferson for 22 years. She received glowing performance evaluations until 2008, when supervisors became critical, telling her that her teaching methods weren’t effective, according to her lawsuit.

A Morris County jury late Friday awarded O’Neill $509,000 — $300,000 for emotional distress, $130,000 in back pay, and another $79,000 in other lost wages and benefits.

District attorney Eric Harrison could not immediately be reached; the Board of Education could appeal the verdict. O’Neill’s attorney, Robert Scirocco, said only: “Mrs. O’Neill was gratified that a jury had the chance to hear her case.”

O’Neill, who last earned $81,000 annually, planned to retire at age 60 at the end of the 2007-08 school year. But when her now-deceased husband grew ill and couldn’t work, she rescinded her retirement notice in early 2008. That’s when the district stepped up observations in her classroom, her lawsuit charged, and evaluations found her unsatisfactory in areas on which she’d previously was praised, the lawsuit said.

Past evaluations in the court record showed that supervisors found O’Neill’s command of chemistry and teaching style “exemplary,” and that she reinforced important concepts in her classes. Even an evaluation in January 2008 noted that O’Neill “clearly has a solid core of knowledge for chemistry,” but it stated she needed to present material in a way that addressed “the diverse needs of the students in her class.”

At one point in the spring of 2008 she received unsatisfactory ratings by a supervisor in five areas. O’Neill responded by saying she believed she was being forced to “dumb down” her chemistry instructions to the detriment of bright students.

In letters to supervisors, contained in the court file, she wrote that she was willing to change and learn new techniques but either wasn’t getting feedback or constructive criticism when she did.

“I am at my wit’s end trying to figure out why I am being treated so unfairly and with hostility,” O’Neill wrote a supervisor, shortly before she stopped working in June 2008.