Former University of Idaho Professor, Shaakirrah Sanders, settled a $750,000 lawsuit against the University and former Deans in the College of Law based on racial and gender discrimination.
Sanders, who is Black, filed for a lawsuit June 19, 2019, claiming that she was secretly recorded by former deans in the College of Law. They had requested colleagues to “monitor” Sanders, and witnessing his laughter when questioned about reports of racially motivated behaviors perpetrated by law students towards their peers.
“During my tenure I taught in a law school building that depicted the lynching of Native Americans while the College declined to investigate and failed to adequately address multiple reports of gender and racially derogatory behavior at the law school,” Sanders shares in the settlement press release.
Sanders claims the defendants Mark Adams and Jerrold Long, both former deans from the College of Law, discriminated against her race and gender and retaliated against her in violation of Title VII, § 1981, and the Equal Protection Clause. All the defendants denied these allegations.
In October 2022, the jury agreed they couldn’t come to a decision on a verdict. The parties agreed to a resolution outside of court which resulted in Sanders releasing the liability of all defendants. The settlement agreement stated, “The parties have agreed the best path forward is a resolution that allows an end to this litigation.”
In addition to the State and University owing Professor Sanders $750,000 in damages and attorney fees, the court entered an order that requires the College of Law by laws to prohibit video and audio recording of faculty, staff and students without consent, and implements conflict of interest measures on the University’s Office of Civil Rights Investigations.
While it doesn’t adhere to class recordings, continuing forward, all College of Law administrators and faculty who wish to take videos or audio record an event, under the College of Law, must publicly announce they are doing so.
On July 1, 2023, Professor Sanders left Idaho Law and is now the associate dean for antiracism and critical pedagogy at Penn State Dickinson School of Law.
Professor Sanders expresses, as stated in the press release settlement, “I am grateful for my sisterhoods, for my family and especially my mother and my grandmother for showing courage and for teaching me how to stand up and speak out when I have experienced or witnessed discrimination.”
Alyssa Johnson can be reached at [email protected]