A former Texas high school football coach has filed an age discrimination lawsuit against his former employer, the Cleburne Independent School District.
Jeff Merket, once the head coach of the Cleburne High School football team, formally filed his complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Tuesday, "alleging age discrimination and unlawful retaliation.
The district said Wednesday that the complaint was expected and that it doesn't change the results of an independent investigation of his complaints, conducted at his request.
"The investigator concluded there is no evidence of discrimination or retaliation involving Mr. Merket. We believe that any further investigation will reach the same conclusion and that Mr. Merket did not prove any relevant additional information in statements made after the report was released to Trustees on April 12, 2017," the district said. The report can be read by clicking here and then by clicking on "DIA Report of an Investigation" which will download the document.
Merket, who made headlines in March when he made accusations in a resignation letter of a hostile work environment, bullying and sabotage, worked for the district for five-and-a-half years as the head football coach and assistant athletic director.
Through his lawyers, Scott & Perez, LLP, Merket said he was being retaliated against for supporting former Cleburne Athletic Director Pam Lea.
"Lea also filed charges of discrimination against CISD, specifically pointing to CISD's new superintendent, Kyle Heath, who she claimed reassigned her because of her age and gender," Merket's lawyers said in a prepared statement.
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According to the firm, Lea's lawsuit, which was scheduled to go to trial in June 2017, recently settled.
"It's pretty clear once Heath came to Cleburne, his goal was to remove anyone who didn't fit his notion of what an athletic department should look like," said Matt Scott, of Scott & Perez. "Heath didn't think an older woman should be the AD, so he replaced her with a much younger man. Then he targeted Coach Merket because Coach Merket was loyal to Pam Lea, because Coach Merket saw that Pam Lea's removal was unlawful, and because Coach Merket wouldn't go along with Heath's way of doing things."
Scott pointed to CISD's recent hiring of 39-year-old Casey Walraven as Merket's replacement as evidence of age discrimination and the larger problems at CISD.
Merket led the Cleburne High Yellowjackets to the playoffs for the first time in several years. Upon learning of Merket's resignation, and that of two additional teachers, students at the school staged a protest calling for the principal to be fired.
