Nevada school district pays 60k, settles racial discrimination lawsuit over cafeteria worker’s ‘Black voice’

A longtime school cafeteria manager in Nevada has won a $60,000 settlement against Washoe County School District after alleging she was stripped of key job duties because white teachers objected to the sound of her “Black voice.”

Cafeteria worker’s Vanessa Bowie-Middleton claimed racial discrimination over her “Black voice”

Vanessa Bowie-Middleton, 60, filed the federal discrimination lawsuit in July 2024. She claimed that Bohach Elementary School Principal Heidi Gavrilles barred her from disciplining students or using the cafeteria’s public address system. According to the complaint, Gavrilles told Bowie-Middleton that white teachers felt “uncomfortable” with her tone, accent, and dialect. Bowie-Middleton and her attorney say the comments were rooted in racial bias.

A Career Undermined by Discrimination

Bowie-Middleton had worked in school kitchens for 17 years and joined the Washoe County School District in 2019. By 2022, she was serving as kitchen manager at Bohach Elementary, a school with roughly 700 students. That January, Gavrilles allegedly entered the kitchen and issued a directive: Bowie-Middleton was no longer allowed to reprimand students in the lunchroom or make announcements over the PA system.

The lawsuit states that Gavrilles justified the decision by saying white teachers “did not like the way [Bowie-Middleton] spoke” and believed a Black woman should not be giving instructions to unruly students. The directive remained in place for seven months, despite Bowie-Middleton’s role requiring her to manage student behavior during lunch periods.

Racial Discrimination lawsuit and Settlement

Civil rights attorney Terri Keyser-Cooper, who represented Bowie-Middleton, described the case as one of the most egregious examples of racial discrimination she has encountered. “Principal Gavrilles explained that the white middle-class Bohach teachers were not used to hearing a Black voice and it upset them to listen to her talk,” Keyser-Cooper said in a public statement.

Although the district conducted an internal investigation and claimed to find “no evidence,” Bowie-Middleton’s restrictions remained in place until she was eventually allowed to resume her full duties. She now works at another school.