A dispute over personal facts at an intellectual fitness offerings middle on Concordia College’s campus in New York has led to a lawsuit that has embroiled directors, consisting of the spouse of the university president.
As turned into first stated by way of LoHud, Erika Rexhouse, a certified scientific social employee who turned into terminated as director of the university’s Wellness Center in February, brought the case towards Concordia in March. She claimed the college had violated kingdom whistle-blower laws. Rexhouse had made a criticism towards Monique Nunes, who on the time had served as senior director of student revel in. Nunes is likewise married to John Arthur Nunes, the university’s president.
According to the lawsuit, Rexhouse alleges that on severa activities Nunes attempted to get personal facts approximately students who had sought get entry to to the mental health services furnished by means of the Wellness Center. Rexhouse stated those instances to the college’s human resources officer and legal recommend.
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The lawsuit lays out several times wherein Nunes allegedly attempted to attain facts of this nature despite the reality she changed into now not a certified expert and consequently turned into no longer allowed to accomplish that underneath country law. One incident includes an unnamed student who sought assistance from the Wellness Center because of records of sexual abuse. The scholar didn’t want Nunes to analyze of the history, the lawsuit claimed, yet Nunes learned of it anyway no matter the truth that it was informed in self-belief. The lawsuit claims Nunes shared the statistics along with her husband. Rexhouse again shared her issue concerning Nunes’s conduct with directors after this occasion.
Shortly after this event, the university announced Nunes could surrender from her role on the university at the end of the semester.
Robert Bernstein, an attorney representing Rexhouse, stated the timing of Nunes’s resignation announcement seemed to suggest it was associated with the occasion.
“The timing of Mrs. Nunes’s resignation, coming as it did so quickly after Mrs. Nunes allegedly entered a non-public examination room where a student intellectual health patient in ‘crisis’ turned into watching for shipping thru ambulance to a local health center, Ms. Rexhouse’s right away raising the difficulty of Mrs. Nunes’s abuse of personal affected person records, once again, along with her superior … and the fear that understanding of what occurred would soon be circulating across the college campus, without a doubt indicates Mrs. Nunes’s resignation changed into an end result of this case,” Bernstein stated in an email. “But we received’t understand for positive till we get discovery, which is the next [phase] of the case.”
Shortly after this, Rexhouse said she turned into terminated by means of the college as a result of a monetary restructuring and then the college would now not fund intellectual health services. The lawsuit stated, but, the Wellness Center persisted to function after Rexhouse’s termination.
The in shape claims the college unlawfully retaliated against Rexhouse, as she turned into protected via whistle-blower legal guidelines. Rexhouse is likewise searching for damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Despite a motion to disregard the lawsuit, a choose allowed one component, alleging a violation of whistle-blower laws, to continue. The choose denied some other component of the whistle-blower claim at the grounds the plaintiff hadn’t demonstrated a chance to the public, and also denied the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim.
