A candidate for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Board of Education is suing her former employer over claims of discrimination.
Chemetria "Sam" Spencer, who is currently running against Audra Hull for Seat C on the school board, filed the federal lawsuit in Alaska's U.S. District Court last week. It names Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and Spencer's former boss, Renier Swart, as defendants.
The complaint alleges an "unlawful pattern and practice of employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age and retaliation for reporting and actively opposing discrimination in the workplace."
Spencer spent about 17 years working for Alyeska after retiring from the U.S. Army as a captain, according to the lawsuit. But the claims center around incidents between 2021 and 2024, when she left her role as a transportation and facilities lead at the company.
Spencer is a 57-year-old Black woman. The suit says Swart became her primary supervisor in 2021, and it recounts treatment from him the plaintiff says was racist.
Spencer's attorneys also argue that Swart was influenced by his background living and working in South Africa during apartheid. That was the system that sanctioned racial segregation and governed relations between whites and nonwhites in South Africa until the early 1990s.
South Africa implemented a democratic form of government in 1994. According to his LinkedIn page, Swart was an aircraft maintenance technician in the South African Air Force between 1987 and 1997.
The allegations in the lawsuit include Swart reducing the amount and quality of Spencer's workload, saying he didn't want her on his team, and searching for opportunities to criticize Spencer.
In an incident from June 2024, Swart reportedly directed the company's security team to look into Spencer's presence at work during business hours. The suit says the ensuing audit was flawed, inept and "designed solely to undermine and place Spencer at risk."
Spencer estimates she made more than 15 complaints to Alyeska Human Resources without any resolution, according to the lawsuit, which claims that her boss treated white employees and younger female employees more favorably.
The plaintiff says the treatment ultimately led her to resign her position under duress. Spencer filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January, and later received a right to sue notice, the suit says.
Neither Alyeska nor Spencer responded to interview requests in time for this story.
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