Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asked a federal court to enforce two administrative subpoenas against a New Mexico school district that it is investigating over allegations of discriminatory hiring and employment practices, according to a press release Friday.
- The agency said two officials at Gallup-McKinley County Schools initially agreed to interview with EEOC regarding allegations that the district engaged in a “pattern or practice of intentional discrimination against Native American employees and job applicants” but canceled their participation and failed to cooperate further. Later, when EEOC subpoenaed the officials for deposition testimony, it said they failed to appear.
- GMCS also failed to follow the administrative appeal process for review of EEOC subpoenas, the commission claimed. The news comes just weeks after the school district filed a lawsuit against EEOC claiming that the investigation exceeded the agency’s investigative authority. A GMCS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Dive Insight:
The dispute between EEOC and the school district constitutes one of many high-profile legal battles of EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas’ first year on the job, and it also involves a discrimination charge that Lucas herself initiated.
In 2024, Lucas, then a commissioner at the agency, filed a commissioner’s charge of discrimination against GMCS, according to EEOC’s press release. The charge specifically alleged discrimination against Native American employees and job applicants in interviewing, hiring, promotion, classification and other employment practices for the jobs including teachers, administrators and school principals.
The alleged conduct violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and other protected categories, EEOC said.
However, GMCS alleged in an Aug. 8 complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico that EEOC’s charge and subsequent investigation constituted an overly broad and vague “fishing expedition” that was “so prejudicial” as to bar the agency from acting upon it. The district further alleged that EEOC failed to respond to an information request and committed procedural errors in processing the charge.
GMCS alleged that EEOC’s actions violated Title VII as well as the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process. A portion of the district’s complaint claimed that EEOC’s request that GMCS provide five years’ worth of confidential employee information did not properly consider the privacy interests of affected parties.
Docket information for the GMCS lawsuit against EEOC, Board of Education for The Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools v. Lucas, showed that the case remained in litigation as of Friday and had been assigned to a district judge.
In EEOC’s press release, Lucas said that commissioner’s charges such as the one filed against GMCS constitute “an important statutory tool expressly enshrined in Title VII for investigation into potentially discriminatory employment practices.” She added that the allegations against the school district “require a prompt and thorough investigation by EEOC.”
“When employers refuse to comply voluntarily with an EEOC investigation or otherwise hinder an investigation’s progress, the EEOC will not hesitate to pursue all available remedies, including a subpoena enforcement action in federal court,” Lucas said.
