Associated Press 0 Shares Print COLUMBUS, Ohio — Fired Ohio State marching band director Jonathan Waters alleged Wednesday that the university’s board was directly involved in his dismissal and asked a judge to let him use other employment actions by the trustees in his lawsuit against the school. Waters was fired in July after an internal investigation concluded he had ignored a “sexualized culture” of raunchy, profane and suggestive rituals within the band and mishandled at least one report of sexual harassment. Waters had been hired in 2012 as band director at Ohio State, one of the nation’s largest universities. He revolutionized the halftime shows for a group known to fans as The Best Damn Band in The Land, creating morphing shapes that drew hundreds of thousands of YouTube views and landed the troupe in an Apple commercial. In a court filing, Waters cites as evidence a handwritten letter to his parents by School of Music director Rick Blatti. In the Sept. 27 letter to John and Peggie Waters, Blatti cites the board’s role in the firing and says it happened without his knowledge. “Recent events have my stomach in knots, my disappointment in our board of trustees profound, and my belief in our university shaken,” Blatti wrote. He wrote that he was unable to access the “powers to be” despite threatening to resign himself. “It’s as if the board answers to no one and the days of faculty governance are all in the past,” Blatti wrote. A message seeking comment was left with the university’s spokesman and with Blatti. Waters sued over his firing in September, seeking reinstatement on the grounds that the university denied him due process and discriminated against him. U.S. District Judge James Graham threw out part of the lawsuit but said Waters could try to prove a gender discrimination claim. To succeed, Waters needs to show that he was treated differently than a similarly situated female would have been treated. At a hearing Friday, Graham severely limited the other cases he could use as comparison…
Continue Reading: Band director: Trustees decided on firing
