The former director of admissions and financial aid at Sewickley Academy who was fired this summer has settled a federal lawsuit he filed against the school.
Federal court records show U.S. Magistrate Maureen P. Kelly signed the order dismissing Douglas Leek’s case against Sewickley Academy on Monday.
Attorney Sam Cordes, who represents Leek, said he could not comment on the settlement.
Messages left with the school’s attorney and a spokeswoman were not immediately returned.
The settlement paperwork does not say what terms were reached to settle the case.
Cordes said that Leek continues to look for work. He was fired on July 21 along with a fifth-grade teacher and four other administrators, including the director of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice; the head of the lower school; the head of the senior school; and the director of teaching and learning.
The firings left the private Sewickley school with no Black administrators.
Leek, who has a doctorate in education and is Black, filed the federal lawsuit against the school a week after he was fired, alleging race discrimination and breach of contract. He said in the complaint that he was replaced by a white woman.
The school claimed Leek was fired for his performance, including the school’s low enrollment, but Leek claimed in the lawsuit that he had gotten a strong performance evaluation earlier in the year.
Leek’s lawsuit intimated that the chain of events leading to his termination started in April when the school’s board of trustees adopted “diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice initiatives to accurately teach and address issues of racial intolerance and injustice in society.”
However, by June 1, a group of school parents was writing to other families and leaders, calling the initiative “Critical Race Theory dressed in sheep’s clothing,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint said the board of trustees reached out to the parents to ask what they wanted. A short time later, the social justice initiative goals were removed from the school’s website, and then Kolia O’Connor, the former head of school, was terminated.
She was replaced by Ashley Birtwell, a member of the board.
