Assistant superintendent placed on leave after staff member claims he repeatedly projected a photo of her in a college dance team uniform at meetings

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) — Allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, and intimidation toward women within Albemarle County Public Schools in Virginia are being made against Assistant Superintendent Patrick McLaughlin.

Heidi Gilman Bennett, a family counseling officer with Albemarle County Public Schools and a four-year volunteer leader of the district’s Family Council, said a school division employee told her that McLaughlin had allegedly been displaying a photo of her — in her college dance team uniform — during staff meetings for several years.

Gilman Bennett said she learned of the alleged incidents before the July 16 school board meeting, where she publicly described what she had been told.

“It has recently been brought to my attention that Assistant Superintendent Patrick McLaughlin has allegedly repeatedly over the past 3.5 years projected a photo of me in my college dance team uniform at central office staff meetings,” Gilman Bennett said during the meeting on July 14.

Gilman Bennett provided WVIR with what she said is a copy of a redacted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint about the photo and related comments, filed, she said, by an unnamed Albemarle County school employee. That document claims McLaughlin would project the photo, smile, and refer to Gilman Bennett as the Family Council president “hard at work dancing.”

WVIR has not yet been able to independently verify that paperwork or its filing status with the EEOC.

School spokesperson Jason Grant told WVIR the school system is conducting its own investigation into the allegations Gilman Bennett made public at the school board meeting, where she asked Acting Superintendent Chandra Hayes to get involved.

“I ask that Dr. Hayes remove the mediocre white male ‘leaders’ whose ‘bro culture’ has consistently failed our kids and families,” Gilman Bennett said in the School Board meeting on July 14.

The employee who filed the complaint wrote that the alleged behavior made them fear their own photo could be used to embarrass them if they spoke out or challenged the status quo.

“It is a culture or has been a culture of fear, a culture of misogyny,” Gilman Bennett said. “In that sense, I was horrified, but also, unfortunately, not all that surprised.”

The allegations against McLaughlin come after the school board asked Superintendent Dr. Matthew Haas to resign in June following the arrest of former Hollymead Elementary employee Michael Swiney, who faces 11 felony charges for alleged sexual abuse of students.

Albemarle County Public Schools told WVIR that McLaughlin has been on paid administrative leave since July 17 while the internal review continues. The district said disciplinary action will be taken if investigators find policy or legal violations.