The Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Beth Schmidt, who was fired as the agency’s Safe Routes to School coordinator for wearing a T-shirt bearing an image of one of America’s most celebrated civil rights paintings.
The settlement came three months after a federal judge issued a stinging rebuke of the council’s position. In July, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken emphatically rejected the council’s motion to dismiss Schmidt’s lawsuit and ruled that its executive director was not entitled to qualified immunity.
The council is a public consortium of cities and counties throughout Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties.
Schmidt’s shirt portrayed Norman Rockwell’s iconic 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.” It depicts 6-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted by four federal marshals to a New Orleans school. The shirt includes in the background, as does the original painting, graffiti of a racist slur, reflecting the racism Bridges confronted at the time. In 1960, Bridges became the first Black child to attend William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans, after a federal court ordered the city’s school system to integrate.
Schmidt wore the shirt to work on Nov. 12, 2023, and a week later, the council’s then-interim executive director, McRae Carmichael, gave her a letter informing her that the shirt violated the council’s policy on “prohibited harassment,” Schmidt’s lawsuit said. Schmidt said she was told that her job was not in jeopardy and was directed not to wear the shirt to work again, as it could “potentially create a hostile work environment.” She never wore it to work again.
Yet three days later, on Nov. 17, 2023, she was fired. Carmichael told her that three people had complained about the shirt.
In court filings, the council’s lawyer Roman Hernandez argued that the district’s “interest in reducing disruption” to its “working environment” outweighed Schmidt’s free speech rights, and that the shirt violated the council’s policies on “prohibited harassment.”
Hernandez and the council’s executive director did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the settlement.
In her July ruling, Judge Aiken said she found no evidence that Schmidt had violated any policy, only that Schmidt was fired after three people complained about the shirt, even though Schmidt adhered to the council’s direction and did not wear it again.
Schmidt, the judge pointed out, had helped create Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day programs across several Oregon counties.
“I don’t think there is a better way of defining an issue of public concern as the wearing of that shirt with that iconic photograph,” Aiken said during the court hearing, referring to the Rockwell painting. She read during the court hearing the state law that established Nov. 14 of each year as Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. Gov. Tina Kotek signed the bill into law in June 2025, making Oregon the third state in the country to pass such legislation.
Schmidt said it was Ruby Bridges who taught her “how to be courageous” and to stand up for her rights.
She said she was thankful for the support of Ruby Bridges and her foundation, state Sen. Deb Patterson, her attorney Lake James Perriguey, her family and close friends.
The 72-year-old Bridges, now Ruby Bridges Hall, still lives in New Orleans and is the chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation. President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal in January 2001.
Schmidt, 51, of Salem, has not been able to find another job since she was fired by the council but that won’t stop her from honoring Bridge’s historic actions, according to her and her lawyer.
“I will continue to walk alongside Ruby Bridges and her mission to have a Day of Dialogue, in which we talk about her and the brave walk she took on November 14th, 1960,” Schmidt said in a statement. “May we all continue to honor a brave six-year-old girl who changed the world for all of us.”
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