Two women who held administrative positions at West Point claim they were fired because of their age and sex.
Laura Dayton and Susan Herr accused the Army West Point Athletic Association of discrimination in a Dec. 22 complaint filed in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
“In recent years,” the women charged, athletic department managers “have exhibited marked preference for younger and male employees in making employment decisions.”
Mikhail Shah, the athletic association’s attorney, said he cannot comment on the allegations while the case is active.
The Army West Point Athletic Association is a nonprofit organization that has overseen the military academy’s intercollegiate sports program since 2015.
Dayton, 57, of Newburgh, was hired as an athletic department administrative assistant in 1985 and initially worked with the football team, according to the complaint. Herr, 65, of Wurtsboro, was hired in 2006 to work in the gift shop and eventually became an administrative assistant for the cadet-athletes meal program.
They claim that an athletic department official, who is not named as a defendant, “took opportunities away from older female employees … and gave those opportunities to younger male employees.”
In 2018, for instance, the official hired a man in his late 20s and allegedly had Herr train him. About a year later he was promoted to a supervisory position over Dayton, Herr and other women. The position was not posted, the complaint states, and the women were not given an opportunity to apply for the job.
After the women complained in December 2019 that the promotion appeared to be discriminatory, an athletic department official allegedly dismissed their concerns and told them that if they did not like working there they could quit and they would be quickly replaced.
Less than a year later, in November 2020, Dayton, Herr and three other women were fired, purportedly because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. No men were fired, according to the complaint. All five women were the oldest employees who held their job titles, four were over age 50 and three had complained about discrimination.
Around the same time, the athletic association hired a woman in her 20s as an assistant director of operations and events. Dayton and Herr claim that they were more qualified for the position but apparently were not considered for it.
They accused the athletic association of age and sex discrimination and retaliation for complaining, under federal and state civil rights laws.
They are demanding reinstatement, back pay and monetary damages.
They are represented by Manhattan attorney Jason L. Solotaroff.
