The plaintiff in the lawsuit against Pima Community College, Terri Bennett, who claims the college discriminated against her for asking her fellow students to speak English, will now be allowed to call a former PCC administrator to offer expert testimony.
Bennett’s legal team had sought to call former president Dr. Angela Zerdavis as an expert witness, but PCC fought to deny the expert witness. Recently, the Arizona Superior Court ruled against the college and Zerdavis will be allowed offer testimony.
Zerdavis was the president of PCC from 2001 to 2004.
“We are gratified that Dr. Angela Zerdavis, president emeritus of Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, can now appear as an expert witness in Ms. Bennett’s lawsuit against the college,” says ProEnglish executive director Robert Vandervoort. “This respected educator is prepared to rebut the statements and actions of the college officials who mistreated and discriminated against the nursing student based on her cultural background as an English speaker.”
Article 28 of Arizona’s state constitution establishes English as the official language of the state. Section 3 states: “A person shall not be discriminated against or penalized in any way because the person uses or attempts to use English in public or private communication.”
Bennett, while a nursing student at PCC, “formally requested a rule limiting classroom discussion to English. Nursing program director David Kutzler allegedly responded by called her a “bigot and a bitch,” according to the Daily Caller.
Bennett was accused of discriminating against Mexican Americans and was threatened by officials to drop her request or be reported for violating the school’s policies against discriminatory behavior and harassment. Kutzler told Bennett, “You do not want to go down that road,” according to court documents. The Daily Caller reported that “Bennett, 50, recalls leaving the meeting in distress and in tears.”
Bennett sued the community college and its boards of directors in an Arizona state court under several causes of action including harassment, breach of contract, retaliation, discrimination and violations of the Arizona Constitution, according to the Daily Caller.
ProEnglish, a controversial national organization, is focused on pushing Congress to pass legislation that would make English the official language of the United States. Tucson attorney John Munger, a former gubernatorial candidate, and his firm Munger and Chadwick with the case of Bennett v. the Pima Community College District.
“Dr. Zerdavis is prepared to testify that the college failed to properly address Bennett’s complaints and that her college suspension was unwarranted for simply requesting that her fellow students speak English in the classroom,” Vandervoort says.