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Former Glassboro tennis coach settles lawsuit
Friday, February 26, 2010
By Pete McCarthy
Former Glassboro High School boys tennis coach Linda Clark will get $225,000 and her job back to settle a sexual discrimination lawsuit she filed against the district.
Clark was fired from her nearly $3,000-a-year post as head of the boys team in August 2006, just two seasons after leading the squad to a winning record in her inaugural campaign. The team had gone 4-14 the prior year.
"It certainly was an emotional fight for three and a half years," Clark said Thursday. "When this decision was originally made to fire me, it broke my heart. I'm not perfect, but I was a coach who loved this sport and worked really hard to do the best I could, and I think I made a lot of kids love tennis."
In her first year coaching the boys' squad, she was named Coach of the Year by the Times.
A 2005 performance review found that Coach Clark did a "commendable job coaching the boys' tennis team. Her passion for tennis is evident in her enthusiasm and the techniques she uses to teach the game," according to multiple documents.
According to the federal lawsuit filed in May 2008, Clark was told by her supervisor that she would no longer be coaching the boys' team because she could not supervise her athletes in the boys' locker room and that was a "very important responsibility of the head coach."
In the two seasons she was coach, Clark said that was never an issue.
"I just think it was blatant sex discrimination," said lawyer Laura Carlin Mattiacci, who represented Clark in the lawsuit. "This was an opportunity for the school district to teach a very valuable lesson to high school boys and girls that a woman can be just as successful as a man. Instead of celebrating it, they just discarded her."
Clark, who resides in Glassboro and serves as a crossing guard during the day, said she can think of no other logical explanation for suddenly being removed as head coach of the boys' squad.
Clark's coaching career at Glassboro High School started in 1998 as the head of the freshman softball team.
She began coaching the girls' varsity tennis squad a year later and continues to do so at the high school, including during the two years she was the boys' coach.
Clark, who originally filed complaints with the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said her goal all along was to get her coaching job back. She never thought it would take this long or require a lawsuit being filed against the school board.
"As coaches we are role models for the student-athletes we are entrusted with," said Clark. "I felt it was important to set an example to stand up for what I believed was right."
As a condition of the settlement, the district admits to no wrongdoing. It was unclear on Thursday whether the entire $225,000 would be paid by the district's insurance carrier.
Glassboro Schools Superintendent Mark Silverstein had no comment for this report on Thursday, according to a district spokeswoman.
"The district welcomes Ms. Clark back as boys' tennis coach, and looks forward to a successful season," according to a statement both sides agreed should be disseminated throughout the district. "Coach Clark is satisfied with the settlement and is anxious to get back to the team."
The first day of practice for the boys' team is scheduled for Monday.
"I'm just so excited to get back," said Clark. "The kids that I knew are no longer there, but I look forward to a great season with new kids."