Mississippi School District Must Face White Worker’s Bias Case

A Mississippi school district must face allegations that race played a role when it fired a white worker for taking a short trip to Jamaica during protected medical leave.

The East Tallahatchie School District’s former child nutrition director presented enough evidence to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether her employer’s purportedly legitimate explanation for firing her was actually pretext for race discrimination, the US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi said Thursday.

Mary Burnett worked for the school district for approximately eight years and lost her job in 2021. She took time off under ...