A former employee of Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, also known as Boys Town, is accusing the Leon County nonprofit of discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and more.
Terrica Coleman filed her complaint February 1 in federal court against Boys Town, which has eight locations across the country.
According to the complaint, Coleman was Site Financial Officer as of January 10, 2022. Her immediate supervisor was Department Financial Officer David Fleisher. She says there were multiple events and episodes with Fleisher that gave her cause for concern.
“Fleisher would repeatedly ask questions of the plaintiff … pertaining to her personal life – to wit, whether she was married, whether she had children, whether she was currently dating, etc.,” the complaint states. “In truth, the plaintiff … was not comfortable at the prospect of disclosing or sharing personal information with her supervisor about her life away from work but did disclose that she did not have children at the time.
“The plaintiff … also shared that while she was not married, she did have a long-term, serious significant other whom she would likely marry in the future.”
Coleman says Fleisher also “would go out of his way” to make comments any time he believed she had “made a change to her hair style.”
Coleman, who is Black, says she felt repeatedly marginalized and singled out by Fleisher by this. She also says she learned Fleisher and Boys Town had a history of terminating and demoting Black employees.
After Coleman and others complained about Fleisher’s behavior, his supervisor Tammy Dahlstrom had meetings with the plaintiff and others. But Coleman says no action was taken to address Fleisher’s behavior.
On August 17, 2023, Coleman took maternity leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. After giving birth to her first child, Coleman returned to work November 6, 2023.
Upon her return, Coleman says Fleisher instituted a hybrid remote policy that required her to work three days a week in the office. She says Fleisher “quite literally, made it up upon her return to the office and – to all appearances – the policy had been specifically engineered by Mr. Fleisher to apply to her only.”
Also, before she left for maternity leave, Coleman hired Natalie Folsom as a Business Office Specialist to assist her and to report to Coleman.
But Coleman says Fleisher granted Folsom the ability to work from home despite not being under his supervision. She says Fleisher also purchased a laptop for Folsom to work from home. Coleman says Fleisher told her to work with Folsom to figure out which days Coleman could work remotely from home.
“Coleman found herself in the inexplicable position of being compelled to adjust her schedule and/or the personal needs of both herself and her newborn infant to accommodate Ms. Folsom’s work schedule,” the complaint states.
Coleman also claims Fleisher issued multiple write-ups against her that were “clearly pretextual.”
On December 8, 2023, Coleman says her babysitter abruptly canceled, making it impossible for her to go to the office. She immediately told Fleisher, who told her she could not work from home unless she had childcare in place. Otherwise, she’d have to take paid time off. Coleman says she knows Folsom was allowed to work from home despite having children present without formal childcare arrangements being made.
On December 20, 2023, Coleman says HR Director Moniki Cannon met with Coleman and Fleisher about the concerns she had with him. During the meeting, Fleisher was asked to justify at least one of the write-ups against Coleman. Coleman says he couldn’t do so, but she says no action was taking against Fleisher.
On January 22, 2024, Coleman was terminated.
She accuses Boys Town of violation of the FMLA, FMLA interference, FMLA retaliation, violation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, sexual harassment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, gender discrimination, racial discrimination and retaliation.
She seeks compensatory damages, attorney fees, taxable costs and other relief.
Coleman is being represented by Patrick R. Frank and Keisha D. Rice of Frank & Rice in Tallahassee.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida case number 4:25-cv-00049