A longtime Ozarks Technical Community College employee is alleging the college retaliated against her after she filed a report of discrimination.
Through a lawsuit filed in Greene County Circuit Court, Ginger Luke, director of student success for Arts, Sciences and Business at Ozarks Tech, is accusing the school of giving her negative performance reviews as a result of her reporting discrimination. Luke has been employed at Ozarks Tech since 2003, per the lawsuit.
Ozarks Tech Director of Communications Jayme Rutledge said in an emailed statement that the college became aware of the lawsuit upon the News-Leader's request for comment.
"Ozarks Tech is committed to fostering a work and learning environment free from discrimination and retaliation,"
the statement read. "Because this is an ongoing legal matter, we cannot comment on the specifics of the case."
The lawsuit claims that in late February 2024, Luke reported discrimination per school policy toward a student and herself by administration, including President Hal Higdon. Ozarks Tech did not investigate the report and failed to comply with its policies, the petition states. Instead Luke received a negative evaluation which the petition claims was an attempt to "create a paper trail in the personnel file of plaintiff as a basis for further adverse retaliatory employment actions."
In March 2024, Luke made an internal report of retaliation and later in May filed an official charge of discrimination with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. According to the lawsuit, Luke once again received a negative evaluation in March 2025 from her supervisor, Jordan Schreiber, who was included in her prior report of discrimination and retaliation.
The subsequent charge of discrimination filed with the state commission attached to the lawsuit notes Luke had received multiple years of evaluations prior to making a complaint of discrimination, all of which were "good" or "excellent." In the document, Luke wrote that upon receiving the second negative performance evaluation she asked her supervisor why she was not approached about her performance sooner. Schreiber, according to the file, acknowledged she hadn't done so and "provided no facts to support her retaliatory evaluation."
Through the lawsuit, Luke is asking the courts to find that the college retaliated against her, require the college to remove the negative reviews from her personnel file and order the college to pay her for damages suffered, including wage increases or promotions lost due to her negative evaluations.
Marta Mieze covers local government at the News-Leader. Have feedback, tips or story ideas? Contact her at mmieze@news-leader.com.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Employee sues Ozarks Tech, alleging retaliation after filing report
