Lawyer says “hero” security guard’s firing a textbook case of age discrimination

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

A Pennsylvania high school security guard made headlines in April when he endured a knife in the chest while helping to apprehend a young man who allegedly stabbed twenty students with a pair of eight-inch kitchen knives.

Now the man, John Resetar, is making headlines again, but this time he is not being hailed as a hero. This time he is a victim of age discrimination, his lawyer Tim Dawson said. Dawson said Resetar sustained the stab wound on a Wednesday and was back at school the following Monday. The knife pierced Resetar’s chest cavity to within an inch of his heart. Dawson said Resetar is a former linebacker who is a “young seventy,” young enough, the lawyer said, to keep his job.

Officials with Pittsburgh-based Capital Asset Protection Inc. thought otherwise. They fired Resetar for no good reason, according to Dawson. Resetar received a letter on Aug. 4 from Capital and Franklin Regional High School informing him of his termination. Resetar said he was upset by the way the school handled the termination. “Nobody would sit down and talk to me and tell me to my face,” he told the Daily Mail.

An assistant superintendent with the school district suggested that the decision to terminate Resetar was Capital’s, and the matter was out of the school district’s control. She said she was surprised that the letter Capital sent to Resetar mentioned the school district and said she was working to obtain further information about the firing.

Dawson suggested that Resetar was fired because Capital thought he was “too old” to be an effective security guard. He said he planned to file an employment discrimination suit on Resetar’s behalf.

Age discrimination is defined as treating an employee or applicant less favorably because of the person’s age. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which forbids age discrimination, only applies to persons who are forty-years-old or older. While it is illegal for employers to favor younger employees over older ones, it is not illegal to favor older employees. Age discrimination lawsuits can be brought even if favoritism is shown to a younger employee who is older than forty. The Act only applies to employers with twenty or more employees.

Like other workplace discrimination claims, a person who alleges age discrimination must file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) before filing a lawsuit. The EEOC complaint must be filed within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory acts or practices. The EEOC will consider the complaint. If it finds that discrimination occurred, it may pursue a claim against an employer on the employee’s behalf. The EEOC may issue a “right to sue” letter to the aggrieved employee, but unlike other types of discrimination cases, an employee alleging age discrimination does not have to wait for this letter to bring a lawsuit in federal court.

Instead, a person alleging age discrimination may bring a lawsuit in federal court 60 days after filing a complaint with the EEOC, regardless of whether the EEOC has acted on the person’s complaint.

If you or someone you know has been injured as a result of someone’s negligent or intentional conduct, please do not hesitate to contact me to set up an appointment today. If you or someone you know has any questions regarding potential personal injury claims, feel free to contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at Arnold & Smith, PLLC in Charlotte, North Carolina for a free consultation. Call toll free at (955) 370-2828 or click here for additional resources.

About the Author

Matthew Arnold is a Managing Member of Arnold & Smith, PLLC, where he focuses on the areas of family law, divorce, child custody, child support, alimony and equitable distribution.

Mr. Arnold was raised in Charlotte, where he graduated from Providence Senior High School. He attended Belmont Abbey College, where he graduated cum laude, before attending law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a full academic scholarship.

In his free time, Mr. Arnold enjoys golfing and spending time with his wife and three children.

Sources:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Lawyer_says_Pennsylvania_school_guard_hero_fired_for_being_too_old.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2734638/School-fires-elderly-security-guard-knifed-chest-held-teen-student-stabbing-spree.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-pennsylvania-guard-idUSKBN0GP1XK20140825

http://eeoc.gov/laws/types/age.cfm

http://www.eeoc.gov/employees/afterfiling.cfm

Image Credit:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Old_man_%284589727705%29.jpg

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