Penn State Fayette attorney responds to Barry lawsuit
An attorney for Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, filed legal paperwork denying claims from a former instructor who sued, claiming she was forced to change grades, and when she complained, she lost her job. Attorney James M. Home also asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by former nursing instructor Elizabeth Barry of White Oak, and offered 15 different affirmative defenses under which to do so.
Earlier this year, Barry sued the university, its chancellor, Emmanuel Osagie; the nursing school’s dean, Paula Milone-Nuzzol; and assistant dean Raymond E. Brown.
She claimed that Milone-Nuzzo and Brown directed her to change final grades in a psychiatric nursing/leadership concepts class she taught in the spring of 2008.
The suit noted that 19 of the 52 students enrolled in the class failed the final exam at the conclusion of the class, prompting several to file for grade mediation and adjudication.
After Barry complained to the Faculty Rights and Responsibility Committee, the suit alleged her contract was not renewed.
But in an answer to the suit, Home indicated that Milone-Nuzzo and Brown got involved “as the result of legitimate concern on their part with respect to the number of students who failed the final exam and the course.”
The answer denied that officials violated Barry’s “right to free speech or otherwise engaged in coercion, intimidation, hostility, threat of reprisal or other forms of retaliation.”
Among the defenses offered in his request to dismiss the suit, Home indicated that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations.
He also said that any employment actions taken or not taken were legitimate and not in retaliation for anything Barry did.
“Any and all actions taken or not taken by defendants toward (Barry) would have occurred even in the absence of conduct or speech, which plaintiff asserts is protected by the First Amendment or by federal or state law,” he wrote.
A judge will rule on the matter at a later date.