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Bus Driver Accuses School District of Discrimination by Not Hiring Her
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A Bridgeport woman is accusing New Canaan Public Schools of discrimination in declining to hire her as a bus driver. Though Dawnie Searight has never worked for this district, according to a complaint she filed with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, NCPS in violation of law “made a determination” that she “was not fit to be hired” after learning from a past employer, bus company DATTCO, about “prior allegations” regarding her behavior as a driver. Following a disciplinary incident where Searight had been driving a bus in an unspecified school district—an incident that prompted a parent’s complaint, more on that below—she was blocked from working for that district. According to Searight, NCPS transportation officials learned about her work history from DATTCO’s director of school operations and, as a result, declined to hire her. “By telling DATTCO that the complainant wasn’t able to drive, New Canaan Public Schools was in effect acting as my employer,” Searight wrote rather curiously in her CHRO complaint, received Dec.