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Ohio panel upholds ruling in ‘White Only’ pool sign case

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January 13, 2012|By Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Cincinnati landlord who claimed a black girl’s hair products clouded an apartment complex’s swimming pool discriminated against the child by posting a poolside “White Only’’ sign, an Ohio civil rights panel said yesterday in upholding a previous finding.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission voted 4-0 against reconsidering its finding from last fall. There was no discussion.

The group found on Sept. 29 that Jamie Hein, who is white, violated the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign at a pool at the duplex where the teenage girl was visiting her parents.

The parents filed a complaint with the commission and moved out of the duplex to “avoid subjecting their family to further humiliating treatment,’’ the commission said.

An investigation revealed that Hein in May posted on the gated entrance to the pool an iron sign that stated “Public Swimming Pool, White Only,’’ the commission statement said.

Several witnesses confirmed that the sign was posted, and the landlord indicated that she posted it because the girl used chemicals in her hair that would make the pool “cloudy,’’ according to the commission.

The girl’s father, Michael Gunn, said he was shocked last spring when he saw the sign by the pool.

Hein and her attorney could not be reached for comment.

“I was trying to protect my assets,’’ she told the commission’s housing enforcement director in a Sept. 27 interview.