The North Carolina Court of Appeals has rejected a wrongful termination suit by the former executive assistant to the dean of the School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at North Carolina A&T University.
The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the university had justification to fire Marilyn Brewington for “unacceptable personal conduct,” including deliberately obstructing the school’s incoming dean and signing his signature without authorization.
She had worked for the university for 37 years.
According to the decision, Brewington had been executive assistant to the school’s African-American interim dean, who was passed over for the permanent appointment. She openly prayed with other employees that the new appointee wouldn’t take the position, said “she would not do (anything)” for him and told a graduate student that “a White man couldn’t run the school and you couldn’t trust White people,” the decision said. She also called him a “White devil.”
She signed an EEO form authorizing the school to hire a new employee without the new dean’s permission, never provided him with a requested personnel list, failed to inform him of the importance of the school’s homecoming activities, and “worked to prevent him from organizing a successful event” — the homecoming — the court said.
It also said she failed to provide requested to an associate dean about the budget for adjuncts and took sick leave without prior authorization.
