99-3841 Patton v. Indianapolis Public School Board, et al.

Listen to this article

“The plaintiffs never identified a Caucasian employee or a male employee who was in a supervisory position similar to that which either of them held, with similar responsibility for the bus crisis, who was not demoted to the same degree or discharged. Patton was the Acting Director of Transportation-the head of the Department. It is only logical that she and Branch, the person in the next highest position, would be forced to take the fall. The plaintiffs argue quite passionately in their briefs that they were scapegoats in the fiasco and that Gilbert even admitted that he was going to blame them for the problems. But why not? They ran the Department, and it is hardly out of line for a higher level manager to hold subordinates to the satisfactory performance of a task. Without some evidence that the obvious explanation is not the true one, plaintiffs are left with nothing. It does not violate sec. 1981 or Title VII for Gilbert to make them ‘scapegoats’ (or less pejoratively, hold them responsible), unless they were singled out because of their race or gender.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, McKinney, J., Diane P. Wood, J.