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A jury in federal court determined Friday that a Fort Worth private school retaliated against and defamed a former employee after she spoke up about sex discrimination in the workplace, according to court records.
Carrie Skains, the former human resources director at Trinity Valley School, alleged in the suit that the school’s chief financial officer, Adam Wojtelwicz, berated her and other female employees. On one of these occasions, the suit states, Wojtelwicz spoke so severely to Skains that she was reduced to tears.
Skains also accused Wojtelwicz of increasing her and other female employees’ workloads without extra compensation, according to the suit. When the workloads of male employees were raised, they received more money, the lawsuit stated.
This increase in work, the jury contended, was directly tied to Skains’ decision to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which determined Skains had the right to sue over the discrimination.
Also at issue in the case was how Trinity Valley treated Skains after one of the school’s piano teachers was arrested and charged with inappropriate conduct with children in 2024. The teacher, Trent Muse, pleaded guilty last year to exposing himself to students and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In a letter from the school’s board of trustees, higher-ups stated that a third-party investigation found Skains and other administrators largely kept the initial allegation against Muse to themselves “because they were concerned that sharing it would be detrimental to Mr. Muse” if the exposure was accidental.
The letter also included a statement that Skains and others did not take steps to internally investigate whether Muse had engaged in inappropriate conduct with other students.
The statements made about Skains in that letter were false and constituted defamation for which she should be compensated, the jury decided Friday. Additionally, the school published the statements with intent to harm Skains, according to the verdict.
All told, Trinity Valley must pay Skains just over $10 million intended to cover harm to her mental health and reputation, unpaid wages and benefits, and exemplary damages, according to the verdict.
The verdict can be appealed.
Attorneys for Skains and Trinity Valley could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
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Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.