Tennessee Woman Awarded $1.5 Million for Wrongful Firing

A federal jury has awarded a former Nashville schools employee about $1.5 million in a wrongful termination trial that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The jury agreed with former Metro Schools Payroll Coordinator Vicky Crawford who contends she was fired in 2003, after more than 30 years with the district, because she cooperated in a sexual harassment investigation of a school official.

Crawford was seeking lost wages, future lost wages, pension benefits and compensatory damages for suffering and embarrassment.

She filed a federal lawsuit, but it was dismissed by a federal judge and upheld on appeal. Last January the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Crawford could sue claiming retaliation even though she was not the one who brought the original sexual harassment claims. The case was sent back to U.S. District Court in Nashville for trial.