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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Discrimination Claim Prevails

Former Scout exec wins lawsuit
Discrimination claim prevails

By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFFlhammel@telegram.com

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They treated me like a second-class citizen,

-- Kamal Aly, FORMER DISTRICT SCOUT EXECUTIVE
WORCESTER — A jury in U.S. District Court has found the Mohegan Council of the Boy Scouts of America discriminated against an employee born in Egypt who said he was forced out of the organization. The 8-member jury assessed punitive damages at $300,000 for Kamal Aly and $152,500 in lost pay. The civil suit alleging employment discrimination based on national origin was decided Thursday. Mr. Aly, whose wife sat beside him last week in a hijab covering her hair throughout the trial, said last night of the verdict, “I was really happy because that gave me the feeling that not all American people like discriminating against other citizens. “They treated me like a second-class citizen, which I didn‘t like especially in the Boy Scouts,” Mr. Aly, who lives in Vernon, Conn., said. “When we teach moral values I didn‘t expect we would have any problem like discrimination.” Asked whether the Mohegan Council will appeal, its lawyer, Andrew Neil Hartzell of Boston, said, “We believe the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. We are exploring all post-trial options.” Because the case is not over, he said he is limited in what he can say about it, but he said that the law limits punitive damages against an organization the size of Mohegan Council to $50,000. The case was heard before Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV. John T. Martin of the Framingham law firm Mann & Martin, which represents Mr. Aly, acknowledged the legal limit for punitive damages is under $300,000, but said there will be arguments in court on what the limit is in this case. Mr. Aly, an American citizen, was hired as district executive, an entry-level position, by the Mohegan Council in August 2001, and said he was forced out in 2005. At one point, he was camp director for Treasure Valley Scout Reservation in Rutland. He contends that for the first three years of his employment he was given good performance evaluations, but was not offered the same opportunities for training and promotion to senior district executive as non-Egyptian employees. Mr. Aly alleged that Scout Executive Jay Garee told him that Council Executive James Kennedy instructed executives at other councils not to hire him, and that District Chairman David Libbey and District Commissioner Don Bjorn did not want him there any longer. Mr. Aly resigned, but filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and then a federal civil rights suit. Mr. Martin said Mohegan Council asserted that Mr. Aly wound up with poor performance evaluations based on a drop in scout membership, and what it said was a failure to respond to emails from volunteers. Mr. Aly's lawyer said such drops in membership were not unusual and not factored into the evaluations of other employees; other contentions did not stand up under cross-examination. The jury arrived at its verdict even though Mr. Aly offered no evidence that the defendants exhibited anti-Muslim or anti-Egyptian sentiments. The plaintiffs proved discrimination by showing “that Mr. Aly was treated differently than his non-Muslim, non-Egyptian colleagues” and “we were able to show the jury that the claimed nondiscriminatory business reasons for treating him differently were false,” Mr. Martin said. The jury found in favor of Mr. Aly on his federal law claim of discrimination, but in favor of the Mohegan council on his state law claims. The difference, Mr. Martin said, under state law, the discrimination has to be the determining factor behind the adverse employment action. Under federal law, the discrimination need only be a contributing motivation behind the action to be illegal, Mr. Martin said. “The Mohegan Council is extremely disappointed in the jury's verdict in this case,” Charles Thompson, president of the Mohegan Council, said, “and respectfully disagrees that any personnel decisions were made on the basis of race or ethnicity. The Council highly values diversity in its staff and participants. Indeed, the diversity of our staff and participants enhances the strength of the Council and its program.” He added, “Many of scouting's programs are registered in faith based institutions including churches, mosques and synagogues. “We do feel the jury was swayed by some of the emotional content instead of by the facts,” he said. Even if the verdict stands, Mr. Thompson said he believes it would be paid by the Boy Scouts of America's insurance policy and not from Mohegan funds. “We have thousands of people who support scouting here in Central Massachusetts and we want to assure them whatever the eventual outcome this does not come from their contributions.” Mr. Aly, who was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout in his native Egypt, said he still loves scouting and wishes he could rejoin the movement.

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