BELLINGHAM, Wash. — A jury awarded a former director of Western Washington University’s (WWU) Office of the Internal Auditor pay and emotional harm damages in response to a civil complaint she filed claiming having been subjected to retaliatory action and wrongful termination from her job. Her complaint said these actions occurred after she reported how staff and faculty in WWU ‘s Woodring College of Education were granting false academic credentials to students to enable them to qualify for federal financial aid.
According to the complaint filed in Whatcom County Superior Court in December of 2020, the plaintiff was hired in 2017 and terminated in November of 2019. The State of Washington is named as the defendant.
The complaint says her termination followed an investigation into a complaint from a registrar that unearned credits were used to make it appear students in Woodring had credit loads which could qualify them for federal financial aid. The registrar told her that he had tried to get the practice stopped but no action was taken.
The plaintiff notified WWU administrators about the complaint and her investigation in January of 2019. Her investigation resulted in a final report in July of 2019.
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The plaintiff also asserted that 2 WWU employees had a duty to report the fraud findings to the Washington State Auditor’s Office (SAO) but had not. She ended up sending a copy of the final report to the SAO herself.
The plaintiff was placed on administrative leave in October of 2019 and her employment terminated the end of November of 2019.
The lawsuit was presented to a jury beginning April 30th. The jury concluded the following on May 14th according to court documents.
- the plaintiff had proven she was protected by the Washington State Employee Whistleblower Protection Act
- the plaintiff had proven she was subjected to “reprisal or retaliatory action” by the defendants
- the plaintiff had proven she was wrongfully terminated
- the plaintiff had proven she suffered damages caused by the reprisal or retaliatory actions
The jury then awarded the plaintiff the following.
- back pay: $631,442
- front pay: $867,964
- emotional harm: $1,500,000
The court accepted the jury award decisions on May 24th in issuing its judgement against the State of Washington.
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