Age discrimination suit filed by former PCCS teachers
July 6, 2026 PLYMOUTH VOICE.
Plymouth Michigan News
By: Kara Berg / The Detroit News
AOL News
Four former teachers at a Plymouth-Canton district elementary school have sued for alleged age discrimination by the principal at the school.
Teachers Michelle West, Linda Verduzco, Julie Casser and Sheri Bowler alleged in a lawsuit filed in May in Wayne County Circuit Court that they were subjected to age-based discrimination and hostility as the district allegedly engaged “in a systemic effort to remove older teachers and replace them with substantially younger, less experienced individuals.”
When new Bentley Elementary School Principal Edward Latour started at the school in 2023, he allegedly did a retirement survey of Bentley Elementary teachers and demanded to know who intended to retire or transfer. He allegedly conducted a “targeted campaign” against older teachers who didn’t want to leave and was belittling and degrading in meetings, and launched false accusations and patterns of intimidation against them, according to the lawsuit.
“Defendant’s conduct was not isolated. It reflected a broader pattern and practice of targeting older teachers for removal based on age and cost considerations,” according to the lawsuit. “The district’s own independent investigation found Latour violated Board Policies governing staff ethics and professionalism.”
The district’s attorney, Kenneth Chapie, Superintendent Monica Merritt and Latour did not respond for comment. Frank Ruggirello Jr., spokesperson for Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, said he could not comment on pending litigation.
An independent investigator didn’t find formal discrimination, but in October it confirmed Latour violated two board policies for staff ethics and professionalism, according to the lawsuit.
The teachers are seeking any amount of damages, as well as back pay, lost wages and benefits and compensation for loss of future earning capacity.
“I can tell you that I see a lot of age discrimination affecting schools. It’s crazy because some of our very best teachers at the peak of their careers are drummed out, they’re jerked around,” said the teachers’ attorney, David Nacht. “It’s just a broader problem in our culture of failing to respect people as they age.”
All four of the former teachers said they did not plan to retire or leave, as they loved teaching at Bentley, according to the lawsuit. Even so, he allegedly repeatedly asked teachers over age 40 “when are you going to retire” and “are you gonna work five more years?” according to the lawsuit.
When all four ultimately left because of Latour’s alleged hostility and discrimination, they were replaced by young teachers, according to the lawsuit.
“We worship youth and vitality, but for skills like teaching, people get better the longer they do it,” Nacht said. “In general we learn from our mistakes and we get better and improve. The idea that we would deprive our children of the best public school teachers simply because they got older is just terrible public policy.”
West, 61, began working at Bentley Elementary in 1995 as a third- and fifth-grade teacher, according to the lawsuit. In October 2023, Latour allegedly made West take a coaching day without any explanation and two months later, was told she could be fired, have her pay reduced or receive a low evaluation because of her absences, despite having the time to take.
She filed an age discrimination complaint with HR in February 2024, but HR said there was not evidence of discrimination, according to the lawsuit. After the complaint, Latour’s conduct allegedly worsened. West ultimately took Family and Medical Leave Act leave for most of the remainder of the school year, then retired.
“The lawsuit alleged Latour created working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person in Ms. West’s position would feel compelled to resign,” according to the lawsuit.
Verduzco, who was 54 when she retired after the 2023-2024 school year, started working at Bentley as a kindergarten teacher in 1993. Latour allegedly called her into his office in February 2025 and questioned her teaching.
He allegedly accused her of being responsible for an autistic student’s self-stimulatory behavior, claiming her teaching negatively affected him, according to the lawsuit, and when she tried to explain that he struggled with classroom social standards, and he allegedly yelled at her and wouldn’t let her respond, according to the lawsuit.
She took FMLA leave for the rest of the school year because of the anxiety Latour caused her and submitted her intention to retire in April 2025, two and a half years before she planned to retire, according to the lawsuit.
Cassar, who was 59 when she retired after the 2023-2024 school year, began working as an English language development teacher in 2015 at Bentley. When she took her first personal day of the school year to move after her divorce, Latour allegedly called her into his office to discuss her absences, despite her prior days off being for migraines with doctors notes.
Latour allegedly did a walkthrough of her class and told her her was “greatly concerned about her teaching,” a phrase he regularly used toward multiple older teachers, according to the lawsuit. He allegedly told her she was not a competent teacher, causing her to become very anxious and need to take increased doses of her medication to function.
He allegedly questioned the accuracy of her student data without any evidence and questioned her lesson plans, causing her to have a panic attack, according to the lawsuit. She took FMLA leave from May 28 to the end of the school year and tried to return the next fall, but when Latour wanted her to admit to falsifying data that had never been shown to be inaccurate and aimed to put her on an Individual Development Plan, she “recognized her teaching career at Bentley was effectively over.”
Latour allegedly disproportionately placed multiple high-needs students without required one-on-one aides into Bowler’s kindergarten classroom in the 2023-2024 school year, according to the lawsuit. Bowler, the building union representative, had been working at Bentley as a kindergarten teacher since 2003.
Bowler was punched in the stomach by one of those kids, a student with severe autism, and she called 911, then was reprimanded for calling police after the assault, according to the lawsuit.
When she sent a “forceful” email to the special education team, advocating for compliance to an Individualized Education Program and occupational therapy services for a child, Latour allegedly said she “had engaged in contentious and possibly unprofessional communications,” according to the lawsuit.
At a disciplinary meeting, he allegedly told her “what’s wrong with you? Are you taking medication? Because you need to,” according to the lawsuit.
She was disciplined for “aggressive, unprofessional, judgmental and hostile” behavior and ultimately developed stress-induced alopecia and lockjaw, according to the lawsuit. She took medical leave in April 2025.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News:
Four former Plymouth-Canton district teachers sue for age discrimination
Plymouth Voice.
