Former 'Dogs coach sues school
Welty and others named
in suit
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File
photo by Joseph Hollak / The Collegian
Stacy Johnson-Klein sued Fresno State Tuesday. She is pictured
with attorney Warren Paboojian after she was fired earlier this
year. |
By Laban Pelz
The Collegian
Former Fresno State women’s basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein
sued Fresno State Tuesday, seeking unlimited damages for harassment, hostility
and discrimination.
The lawsuit came more than five months after the school fired Johnson-Klein
for insubordination, improper fiscal actions and inappropriately acquiring
pain medication from players and coaches.
The former coach said the firing was retaliation for her complaints of
sexual harassment and the poor treatment of Fresno State’s women’s
athletic programs.
University President John Welty, former athletic director Scott Johnson
and former assistant athletic director Randy Welniak were also named in
the suit, in which Johnson-Klein accuses the school and these men of creating
a hostile work environment, damaging her reputation and causing her emotional
distress.
Fresno State administrators refused to comment Thursday, though the suit
had been filed two days earlier, and the university’s legal office
in Long Beach had been officially served that morning.
University spokeswoman Shirley
Armbruster said she doesn’t expect the school to comment on the
case until it goes to trial, or perhaps not even until after it concludes.
Armbruster would not say how much, or if at all, Fresno State would defend
Johnson or Welniak, who have since left the university.
The office of Warren Paboojian, Johnson-Klein’s attorney, said he
also would make no comments.
Paboojian told the Fresno Bee
Tuesday that the lawsuit is aiming to get Johnson-Klein’s reputation
back.
Fresno State students reacted Thursday to some of the accusations made
in the suit, which include inappropriate touching committed by Scott Johnson
and inappropriate comments made by all three men.
Brenda Leal, a senior liberal studies major, said she knows little about
campus administrators because she has no contact with them, but the defendants
should be fired if the accusations are true.
Another accusation the lawsuit makes is that campus administration did
not take seriously claims of sexual harassment made by Johnson-Klein and
other women, and that the school “had a pattern and practice of
violating Title IX,” the federal law requiring gender equity in
public school sports.
“They need to pay more attention to sexual harassment,” Leal
said, “and be more careful about who they hire.”
Freshman political science major Brendon Gill also said he has no contact
with Fresno State administrators, and isn’t concerned with them.
“All the politics in Joyal, that’s between them and their
God,” Gill said. “I’m just concerned with getting to
class on time.”
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