Discrimination

By DAVE McMILLION Staff Writer, Martinsburg MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - In the third racial discrimination suit to be filed in less than a week, two Charles Town, W.Va., residents are suing a Jefferson County nightclub, claiming their civil rights were violated when they were not allowed to enter the bar, according to court records. Charles E. Rash, who is black, said when he tried to enter Images bar last April, a bouncer at the club said the bar had a policy of not allowing blacks to enter, according to a suit Rash filed in U.S. District Court in Martinsburg Monday.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Pennsylvania Nonbelievers Inc. (PAN) has filed a discrimination complaint against the Borough of Chambersburg for the borough council's November decision to ban all public displays from Center Square. PAN President Steve Neubauer said Tuesday that his organization filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) to affect a position of religiously neutral in local government. In November, the Chambersburg Borough Council overturned a 14-year policy of allowing displays at the fountain in Center Square when PAN requested permission to place a sign honoring atheist soldiers and the Winter Solstice, which was Monday.

A former employee of San Mar Children's Home in Boonsboro has filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, claiming she was discharged from her job because she is a lesbian, according to documents. Sarah Rutledge, 29, alleges her co-workers made disparaging remarks about her sexual orientation and marriage to a woman throughout her time at San Mar. Rutledge said she also was placed on probationary status on Sept.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - An attorney for a Berkeley Springs, W.Va., woman has filed a civil lawsuit against the Berkeley County Commission, claiming the woman was "constructively discharged" by County Assessor Preston Gooden after taking leave from work to care for her ailing 2-year-old son. Berkeley County Circuit Clerk Virginia Sine's office received the complaint Nov. 9 from attorney Gregory A. Bailey, who filed it on behalf of Dorothy Martin, a...

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - The Alliance Defense Fund on Wednesday filed a complaint in federal court against Shippensburg University, claiming the university violated a 2004 settlement with a First Amendment advocacy group through "speech codes" that discriminated against a campus religious group. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, states the university violated the 2004 agreement with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)

Former Hagerstown Police Department officer Margaret Kline talked about having a larger-than-usual amount of clerical work when she was hired as the city's first female beat officer. Former Hagerstown City Council member Alesia Parson-McBean talked about going to a predominantly black beach in Florida as a youngster. Jeanne Jacobs related seeing Jews being deported from France during the Nazi occupation of the country, and teacher Diane Macklin recalled her experiences being a black teacher.

The Maryland Senate voted by the narrowest of margins this week to send a bill that aimed to address rental housing discrimination back to committee, effectively ending its chances of passing this year. Sen. Christopher B. Shank, R-Washington, who opposed the bill, said that downtown Hagerstown would have been negatively affected if the bill were to pass. According to the Associated Press, a primary focus of the measure was to prevent landlords from declining to rent to people who get government assistance for housing.

andrews@herald-mail.com It's been 30 years since the pioneering federal law known as Title IX first prohibited sexual discrimination in school sports, activities, and academics. "Without a doubt, Title IX has opened the doors of opportunity for generations of women and girls to compete, and to pursue their American dreams," U.S. Secretary of Education Roderick Paige said last June, when he created a Commission on Opportunity in Athletics to examine the law. Girls and women have made enormous strides in catching up. But as worthy as Title IX is, it's confusing and could be tightened, according to the commission's report, submitted last month.

A fight filmed on the steps of the historic Berkeley County Courthouse played out on televisions across the country Sunday night as part of TLC's “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.” Two young Romanichal gypsy women shoved and punched each other following a wedding in the reality series that depicts the everyday lives of families like Mellie Stanley's. She was charged with disorderly conduct after the brawl. Cameras caught Mellie and the maid of honor, Diamond, in what Mellie called “a huge argument.” It centered around comments allegedly made about the bride's mother-in-law.

The longtime Jefferson County administrator fired in September 2009 on a 3-2 vote by the county commissioners this week filed an eight-count civil suit claiming discrimination, human rights violations and wrongful discharge, according to the suit filed in the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk's office. Leslie Smith's suit alleges that all five commissioners violated her rights, discriminated against her on the basis of sex and age, harassed her and broke her work contract, and accuses them of retaliatory discharge and violating the state's wage payment and collection act in firing her Sept.