A former employee is accusing Louisiana State University of age discrimination and retaliation.
Natalie Rigby filed her complaint in federal court against LSU.
Rigby, who is 52 years old, was employed by LSU since 1993 as an Administrative Specialist in the International Student Office, according to the complaint. She claims she had no disciplinary issues or negative job evaluations during her tenure at the university.
According to the complaint, Rigby's troubles began with Dr. Hector Zapata, Associate Vice Provost of LSU International Programs and her former supervisor. According to Rigby, Zapata started harassing her and other female subordinates based on their gender starting in 2013.
In October 2019, following a peer review where Rigby and her colleagues reported Zapata's alleged misconduct, he was removed from his position. In January 2021, Samba Dieng replaced Zapata as Senior International Officer and Executive Director of International Programs and became Rigby's new supervisor.
Rigby alleges that Dieng began harassing and targeting older workers soon after his appointment. She accuses him of levelling false accusations against her to create a pretext for termination. On March 16, 2021, Dieng met with Rigby to discuss what he considered performance deficiencies and threatened her with termination several times.