Six workers sue Florida beauty academy, claim layoffs cut only staff of color

Six former employees at a Florida beauty school claim their workplace had no HR department — and that, in the months that followed, layoffs cut only workers of color. 

The allegations surfaced on April 21, 2026, when the six filed separate lawsuits the same day in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Genesis Educational Services of Florida, Inc., which operates the Palm Beach Academy of Health & Beauty (PBA). See, for example, Chapman-Reese v. Genesis Educational Services of Florida, Inc., No. 9:26-cv-80446-DMM (S.D. Fla. filed Apr. 21, 2026).  The plaintiffs — former campus director Avis Chapman-Reese, former campus registrar Gillian Williams, former director of career services Gwendolyn Tucker, former career services representative Nuwan Liyanapatabendi, former admissions coordinator and later career services representative James Scruggs, and former administrative assistant and later assistant campus registrar Takeria Ivory — bring claims under Title VII, the Florida Civil Rights Act, and, in two of the filings, the Florida Private Whistleblower Act. Each is seeking a jury trial. 

What the plaintiffs describe is, in many ways, an HR textbook of what not to do. According to the filings, PBA had no human resources function at all, which, they claim, meant employees who wanted to report misconduct by the chief operating officer had to take their concerns to the COO herself.  Ivory alleges she was groped three separate times in a hallway and asked, “Is your ass real?” She claims the incident report she filed internally was brushed aside with, “Oh well, she will get over it.”