Jury Rejects Religious Harassment Charge By Former School Library Employee

The Roanoke Times reports that a Virginia federal court jury yesterday found for the defendant in Scott v. Montgomery County School Board, a religious discrimination and retaliation suit. (See prior related posting.) In the suit, Judith Scott, a fired school library assistant claimed that her supervisor Nina Donohoe  pressured her for more than a decade to join Christian prayer meetings and Bible study sessions, and that when she refused she was harassed and finally dismissed. Donohoe claimed that her differences with Scott were work-related. After the jurors returned their verdict, Judge James Turk told them: "I think that was the only verdict you could return in this case. It was the principals who recommended [Scott's] contract not be renewed. I think we had two nice ladies in this case who just couldn’t get along. One of them had to go."