Ex-teacher files lawsuit alleging bias at Agassi Prep

A former teacher at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy has filed an age and racial discrimination lawsuit against the independent charter school.

James Holmes Jr. filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday in Las Vegas. He is represented by attorney Barry Levinson.

According to the lawsuit, Holmes was hired in July 2005 to teach ninth- and 10th-grade biology. In June 2008, Jerome Myers, the school’s chief executive officer at the time, authorized Holmes to attend the Chemical Educators Conference the following month in Indiana.

“Nevertheless, shortly after her retention as the defendant’s new principal, Dottie Smith rescinded the plaintiff’s authorization to attend the Chemical Educators Conference,” the lawsuit alleged.

Holmes, who is black, eventually learned that all of the new teachers for whom Smith had reserved funds to attend conferences were white, according to the complaint. In August 2008, Smith told Holmes she could not fulfill his request for lab materials because of budgetary constraints, but Holmes later learned lab materials were ordered for two white teachers, according to the complaint.

In fall 2008, Smith reassigned Holmes and replaced him with a younger teacher, the complaint alleged. The reason given was that “his teaching methods were outdated, and that he did not know how to communicate with the students.”

In December 2008, Smith ordered Holmes to teach physics.

The document alleged that Holmes received negative evaluations in December 2008 and February 2009 and that his request for lab materials in the fall of 2009 again was denied.

Holmes then complained to the school’s human relations department about Smith’s behavior.

“Finally, in January of 2010, in retaliation for having filed a complaint with the defendant’s human relations department, the plaintiff was terminated from his teaching position and replaced by a substitute teacher ,” according to the lawsuit.

The school was founded by tennis superstar Andre Agassi and opened in 2001 on West Lake Mead Boulevard, near Martin Luther King Boulevard. It serves students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

No one could be reached at the school late Thursday, but according to its website, the school’s goal “is to offer academic programs designed to enhance a child’s character, respect, motivation and self-discipline.”

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.