In Highland Park, one school board member’s “naughty thoughts” about the district’s chief education officer ultimately cost more than $1.8 million.
While the Highland Park School District has no schools, and an annual budget of just $2 million, district officials and board member Lorne McGee agreed in August to pay former Chief Education Officer Zakia Gibson $1.5 million, the Detroit Free Press reports.
The payout followed Gibson’s $351,000 separation agreement in April, after an investigation by the law firm Salvatore Prescott Porter & Porter found there “was ample evidence” McGee made numerous sexually suggestive comments and unwanted physical contact with Gibson.
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The 24-page investigative report included texts from McGee that dated back to October 2021, when the board members wrote “just know you’re often in my naughty thoughts, (oops).”
Another, sent just ahead of the holidays read: “Can I wrap you and place you under my Christmas tree?” according to WXYZ.
A state emergency financial manager took control of the financially struggling Highland Park school district near Detroit in 2012, and by the time local officials regained authority in 2018, the district had no traditional schools and the school board was basically limited to authorizing charter schools, the Free Press reports.
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The district hired Gibson to help continue its fiscal recovery, with the goal of reviving Highland Park’s high school, but McGee’s advances allegedly complicated those efforts.
In October 2023, Guy Sohou, Gibson’s attorney, sent the district a cease-and-desist notice that alleged Board President Janet Spight White was not doing enough to shield Gibson “from the ongoing sexual harassment.”
“Things have worsened,” Sohou wrote. “Mr. Lorne McGee went from sexual harassment and borderline assault to humiliating her this week. He told Dr. Gibson’s assistant that Dr. Gibson is flirting with him. Such a false statement is surely intended to humiliate her and put her in a bad light.”
The notice came with a drafted lawsuit against the district that cited the December Christmas tree text, and other antics, including a June 2023 kiss from McGee in front of two witnesses. Sohou also highlighted how other similar harassment cases yielded massive payouts.
The $351,000 agreement to end Highland Park’s contract with Gibson followed six months later, and the district and Gibson began meeting with a mediator in June. By August, Gibson had a check for $1.5 million, and two months later, board members were calling for McGee’s resignation.
McGee denied inappropriate behavior at an Oct. 11 board meeting, where he alleged he is the victim of a conspiracy. In an email to his colleagues, McGee alleged Gibson repeatedly invited him to dinners and lunches, on educational trips, and attended his mother’s funeral.
“I want it known, I, Lorne McGee, never harassed nor asked the individual to lunches or dinners,” he wrote, according to the Free Press. “She would ask me.”
Board members nonetheless voted to remove McGee as treasurer and stop paying his board stipend.
On Nov. 5, voters gave McGee his walking papers when they elected three new candidates over two incumbents, with McGee finishing last among the five, WDIV reports.