Dr Leslie Rist, a former tenure-track lecturer at Lewis-Clark State College, has filed a lawsuit against the college and the Idaho State Board of Education, last month, in Idaho's U.S. District Court for half a million dollars in damages and reinstatement.

The lawsuit follows an EEOC investigation verdict that blames LCSC for unlawfully retaliating against Rist for reporting students' complaints of sexual harassment.

In April 2011, Rist filed a formal complaint of sexual discrimination and retribution against the college with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Rist was working as a non-tenure track lecturer in the college's business division since January 2006.

Until fall of 2009, her stay at LCSC was going smoothly as she received positive performance reviews and excellent student evaluations.

But, a complaint letter by her husband to a lawmaker about the college's use of public funds for a staff golf retreat and other activities instigated LCSC officials to take adverse personnel actions.

As a result, the college cancelled some of her classes for the semester and eventually replaced her with another lecturer with less experience citing her qualifications were not sufficient for the position.

In addition, three years back two women had approached Rist to report about sexual harassment by a male faculty at a social function sponsored by the college.

They refrained from reporting it to the department officials because the head of the department was close to the alleged perpetrator.

Then Rist contacted the college's human resources office to report their allegations, but the office failed to take any action. Instead of reacting to the complaint, the college decided not to reinstate her employment contract for the following academic year.