By Heart of Illinois ABC
BLOOMINGTON – A former Unit 5 employee is suing the school system in federal court accusing the district’s head of human resources of repeatedly sexually harassing her while other school leaders failed to stop the hostile work environment.
Heart of Illinois-ABC is not identifying the alleged victim. She claims in the lawsuit that the superintendent and school board members retaliated against her for making the complaint against Unit 5’s Director of Human Resources James Harden.
She alleges Harden made repeated “sexually explicit” comments and gestures.
For example, the lawsuit states that while walking past a large conference table, Harden asked the woman to have the conference table delivered to his home so he could “make love on it to his wife.” According to the suit, Harden proceeded to get on the table and act out “making love” in front of her.
Harden’s mother attended a board meeting shortly after he resigned in the spring of 2019, and an acquaintance of Harden told the board he’s a man of “impeccable” character, and that “every charge against Dr. Harden was an all-out lie.”
According to the lawsuit, retaliation occurred when the superintendent at the time, Mark Daniel, “imposed different workplace rules” on her compared with other employees who did not make harassment allegations.
The woman also said she reported Harden’s conduct to school board member Barry Hitchins, who was board president at the time.
The suit said the woman was forced to resign in October of 2018. She is suing to get her job back, in addition to back-pay, and benefits.
Hitchins declined to comment on pending litigation and personnel issues.
A Unit 5 spokeswoman said Tuesday night the district had not received the lawsuit.
Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected].
