BOSCOV’S DEPARTMENT STORE FINED IN DISCRIMINATION CASE
By Christopher Blackwell

On May 19, The News Journal reported in Dover that the Delaware State Human Relations Commission rejected Boscov’s defense and fined the department store $5,000 and ordered it to pay $21,000 to two Christians, two Wiccans and one Pagan.
More from the news story below.

The five plaintiffs complained that their scheduled classes had been canceled illegally at the Dover store because of a complaint and threat by Pastor William Jeffcoat, of Capitol Baptist Church. Pastor Jeffcoat had threatened to launch a Christian boycott of the store if the classes were allowed. The classes had included sessions on tarot, talismans, candle magic and the pentagram.

In its defense, Boscov's said that the classes were called off due to lack of diversity. The Commission all but called the defense a lie.

The commission said, "The commission finds that respondents'
proffered reasons ... are unworthy of credence and served as a pretext for discrimination ... "

The Dover spiritualist, Donna Jackson, who was the lead complainant, reported that she received support from Wiccans, Pagans and Christians from as far away as Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Sweden.

On hearing the ruling Jackson said, "I'm still shaking. I'm ecstatic over this.”

Boscov’s lawyer and a top official said they were looking over the possibility of appeal to the Superior Court.

EVENTS LEADING UP TO COURT DECISION

On Feb. 12 the Associated Press reported that the Dover Boscov’s Campus of Courses program was approached by Jackson to do classes at the store last summer. Jackson had done classes the year before in Boscov’s and there had been no complaints.

On Nov 2, 2005 Dover Post said the classes were supposed to run from from Sept. 12 through Oct. 7.

On Feb 12, the Associated Press said that during Dover’s annual Pagan Pride Day on August 28, 2005, Pastor Jeffcoat came across fliers advertising the spiritual awareness classes.

Jeffcoat said, "When we saw that, we could not stand by silently." He had been surprised on moving to Dover to hear that they had a Pagan Pride Day and about the foothold the Wiccans had in the community.
He said, "We consider it to be a dark religion."

Boscov’s has no written rule on course offerings that are organized on the local level though approved at corporate level. According to its web site, courses in various stores in Delaware, and elsewhere, run from cake decorating, knitting and ballroom dancing, to numerology for beginners, to clues to your past lives and messages from beyond classes.

Jackson and her fellow instructors say they were refused because of some of them being Pagan even though the courses themselves were not religious.

PASTOR THREATENS STORE OVER CLASSES

On Feb. 14 The News Journal reported that Jeffcoat testified to the three-member commission that he told the store’s managers last August , "I told them that I would encourage my people to show their displeasure, which could include challenging them to take their business elsewhere. I told them I would get on the telephone and call pastors to let churches know what was going on here in Dover."

The five complainants said they were told by the Sybil Harvey, the store’s public relations manager, that the courses were canceled because the local pastor had threatened a boycott if they were not dropped.

The corporate offices of the store chain claimed that it was not because of the claimant’s religions but due to a lack of diversity of the classes that caused the store to cancel them. The day the classes were dropped, the classes were advertised by Boscov’s in the local newspaper by accident.

The company claimed the decision had already been made before Jeffcoat made his complaint.

IN CONCLUSION

The commission enforced the Delaware's public-accommodations law. In The News Journal May 19 article, the commission disagree with the store’s claim and required the store pay the fines. In summing up the case it noted that the department store came in for extra punishment because of its size.

The commission said, "With all Boscov's civic involvement their decision to single out a particular group and their inability to resolve the situation in a nondiscriminatory manner is particularly intolerable."