A Black couple who spent more than two decades working at The Kiski School have sued the 137-year-old private school and its headmaster, claiming racial discrimination.
The civil rights lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Pittsburgh, alleges “racial discrimination and retaliation for opposing racial discrimination,” as well as violations of the federal Fair Housing Act.
Joseph Ross, a retired Pennsylvania state trooper, was hired in 2003 at the elite Westmoreland County boarding school serving grades 9-12 and later served as its security director, the lawsuit said. Carla Ross, his wife, started working at the school after the couple moved on campus in 2004. She later served as the school’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion.
In the 14-page lawsuit, the Rosses allege the school became “hostile to Kiski’s Black employees” after Mark P. Ott took over last year as head of school.
A school spokeswoman declined to comment.
The lawsuit alleges Ott terminated three of the school’s four Black employees, including Joseph Ross, and “successfully demoted” the fourth, Carla Ross, after Ott was sworn in on July 1, 2024.
Less than a year later, Joseph Ross was terminated “without cause or warning” on June 4, the lawsuit said.
Carla Ross was demoted and the couple was evicted from on-campus housing this year, the lawsuit said. She “gave notice of her separation from Kiski” on Dec. 1, claiming they effectively forced her to resign.
Ott “excluded” Joseph Ross, then the school’s security director, from security meetings, the lawsuit alleges. On those occasions, Ott met “with white managers with less (or no) security experience,” the Rosses claim.
The lawsuit also alleges Ott violated a fair housing law that bars landlords and property managers from refusing or providing housing based on discriminatory practices.
The Rosses received on-campus housing as part of their compensation for several years, the lawsuit said.
“Despite repeated requests, Kiski refused to allow the Rosses to remain in their campus housing and, instead, gave it to a white teacher.”
While living on campus, the Rosses said they oversaw a dormitory that housed 16 students.
“If you look at what Kiski was all about, making a difference in a boy’s life, that’s what we enjoyed,” Joseph Ross, 67, who now lives in the Hershey area, told TribLive on Monday.
“You know when someone’s talking down to you,” added Carla Ross, 65. “We’ve been in this skin since we were born. … You know when someone dismisses you.”
The Rosses’ Pittsburgh-based attorneys, Maureen Davidson-Welling and John Stember, are demanding a jury trial. The couple also seeks back and front pay, lost benefits and compensatory damages.
Andrew W. Wilson, brother of future President Woodrow Wilson, opened what he called The Kiskiminetas Springs School in 1888 exclusively to educate boys. The school, located in Loyalhanna Township, began accepting female students in the 2024-25 school years after it announced in October 2023 that it was becoming co-ed.
The school currently enrolls 189 students and has 24 full-time staff members, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Its student-to-teacher ratio is 7.7-1.
