Former Coker University employee alleges harassment, racial discrimination in federal lawsuit

HARTSVILLE, S.C. (WBTW) — A former Coker University employee is suing the school in federal court alleging that she was fired and routinely harassed because of her race after questioning the handling of the school’s Carryforward Fund.

Attorney Donald Gist filed the 10-page lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Florence on behalf of Rennie McManus-McCoy. The lawsuit claims the university breached its contract with her, discriminated against her by creating a hostile work environment and violated her civil rights.

McManus-McCoy was the university’s director of student support services in 2022-23. In that role, the lawsuit says she was responsible for managing the Carryforward Fund, which helped cover services for students.

The lawsuit claims that one of McManus-McCoy’s supervisors undermined her efforts to manage the fund and that the university “disregarded the needs and requirements of the Carryforward Fund.”

Specifically, McManus-McCoy’s lawsuit said she told the university about grant requirements but that officials “continued with actions and practices entirely contrary to the prescribed guidelines” and began to “actively retaliate” against her after she complained about the alleged violations.

McManus-McCoy then complained to the school’s human resources department and the vice president of finance, the lawsuit said. That allegedly led to even more harassment.

McManus-McCoy also claims in the lawsuit that she was treated differently than her white colleagues and that the university failed to protect her from continued harassment by her supervisor.

According to the lawsuit, the university promised McManus-McCoy that her complaints would be addressed but “failed to follow through on that promise in any substantive or meaningful way.”

McManus-McCoy was placed on a performance improvement plan in November, but the lawsuit says the university “never complained” about the quality of her work or questioned her professional judgment from the time she was hired in October 2022.

It also claims the university failed to provide McCoy-McManus with clear direction on projects and did not evaluate her negatively, leading her to think her job performance “met or exceeded the expectations and requirements of her position.”

During a meeting with human resources officials in November, the lawsuit alleges that officials accused McManus-McCoy of being more concerned about “spending money than her students.”

Then, in December, the lawsuit said McManus-McCoy began steps to request time off per the Family and Medical Leave Act. She was to submit her request on Dec. 27 but was fired on Dec. 14., even though her performance improvement plan was not scheduled to be completed until Feb. 7.

The lawsuit claims that the university agents breached the terms of her contract and fired McManus-McCoy on the “pretextual and fraudulent basis of poor job performance.”

The lawsuit seeks back pay, front pay, and future earnings with cost-of-living adjustments, along with interest, fringe benefits, retirement benefits, attorney fees, and other litigation expenses.

News13 has reached out to Coker University about the lawsuit and the university responded saying that at this time, they have not been served with a lawsuit.

Count on News13 for updates.

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Taylor Ford is a digital journalist for News13 . She joined the News13 team in January 2023. Taylor is a Florence native and covers the Pee Dee out of News13’s Florence Bureau. Read more of Taylor’s work here .

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