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Peters teachers, counselors settle suit

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Seventeen female teachers and guidance counselors who filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit against Peters Township School District settled their case out of court.

Court documents indicate lawyers representing both parties filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit Aug. 15.

The motion does not detail any monetary settlement.

“We reached an amicable agreement regarding equal pay … some of it was lost wages, and they were given what was due to them compared to younger or male counterparts,” said Nikki Velisaris Lykos, an associate of the law firm Rothman Gordon, representing the plaintiffs.

Assistant district solicitor Christian Bareford declined to comment on the case.

“All of the women were employed by the district at the time of the filing (in September 2010), and some retired as the suit made its way through court,” Velisaris Lykos said.

Of the 17 plaintiffs, 11 are still listed as employed by the district on the school website directory.

The suit alleged the district didn’t provide pay commensurate with their work experience, hired younger or male teachers at higher salaries and awarded those new hires credit for teaching experience.

The district argued in court that different superintendents hired the plaintiffs between 1993 and 2008 and the administrators tried to get the most qualified applicants at the lowest pay acceptable to the new hires.

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