Summers

MEMORANDUM *

John Summers appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the State of Nevada Department of Prisons on his Title VII gender discrimination claim. The district court found that, while Summers may have made out a prima facie case of discrimination, he failed to establish a genuine issue as to whether the reason given for his termination was pretextual. Because we hold that Summers did not even make out the a prima facie case of gender discrimination, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment.

To survive the summary judgment motion, Summers was required to establish that he was performing according to his employer’s legitimate expectations. See Godwin v. Hunt Wesson, Inc., 150 F.3d 1217, 1220 (9th Cir.1998). He failed to make this showing. During his short time at the prison, his performance evaluations steadily declined from a solid “standard” rating to a “needs improvement” rating. His employer’s concerns about his performance were largely the same on each consecutive evaluation; he was told what he needed to do to improve and failed to make the necessary changes in his behavior.

The chewing tobacco incident, only one of numerous…