MUSKEGON, Mich. – A fired school social worker contends she was let go because she’s white.

Susan K. Schaffer filed the lawsuit against Muskegon Public Schools in federal court, “alleging the district laid her off because she is white and because she earlier pursued a discrimination complaint against the district,” the Muskegon Chronicle reports.

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According to Schaffer, the school district changed its layoff policy to be based on performance evaluations.

“Throughout the course of her employment with (the district), Plaintiff performed her job duties in a manner that was satisfactory or better than the African American social workers who were retained because of their race,” her lawsuit states.

She claims after the district discovered all of the black employees would be let go, it changed the policy to be based on seniority.

“Schaffer was a member of the teacher’s union, but claims the district used the union contract to ‘protect’ certain employees from layoffs, and so didn’t have a ‘bona fide’ seniority system for layoffs,” the paper reports.

Her previous complaint occurred in in 2005, when she was laid off and what she claims were black employees lacking seniority and the proper credentials were retained. At that time, she filed a complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

At that time, she got her job back after she says she filed a union grievance.

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The school district vigorously denies the allegations and attorney Gary Britton says it is “very aggressively defending the case.”

They say it wasn’t just white social workers like Schaffer that were let go. Black and Hispanic ones were shown the door, too.

The district also claims it was just following the union contract “agreed to by both sides.”

The former Muskegon school employee is demanding unspecified compensation for loss of wages, pain and suffering and job search costs. She also is seeking punitive damages for “malicious and reckless conduct,” according to the Chronicle.