Principal’s Race Discrimination Lawsuit Over “We Can Malcolm X Her” Allegations Can Go Forward
A bit of backstory, from a 2019 N.Y. Daily News story (by Michael Elsen-Rooney & Stephen Rex Brown):
A white principal and four black teachers at a Bronx middle school have filed dueling lawsuits accusing the other of racism as fallout continues over allegations that the embattled administrator barred Black History Month lessons.
Former Bronx Intermediate School 224 Principal Patricia Catania, who is white, grabbed headlines in 2018 when the Daily News reported on accusations she prohibited English teacher Mercedes Liriano from teaching lessons on the Harlem Renaissance and confiscated a student’s poster on African-American musical genius Lena Horne.
Amid the furor, Catania sued Liriano, two other black teachers at the school and two teachers union employees, alleging they’d waged a “maligning, malevolent, and racist campaign” to oust Catania as principal because she was successfully cracking down on under-performing educators….
“We can Malcolm X her, by any means necessary we will get her out. Change through violence,” UFT rep William Woodruff allegedly said in January 2017.
In Catania v. United Fed’n of Teachers, decided Monday by Judge Gregory Woods (S.D.N.Y.), the judge rejected much of plaintiff’s claims, but allowed some to go forward; recall that all the factual allegations described below are just allegations at this point—the court simply held that plaintiff had plausibly alleged enough to allow the case to proceed:
Plaintiff Patricia Catania was the principal of Middle School 224, a public school in New York City. Ms. Catania is white. She alleges that the defendants—a labor union and a number of its officers—conspired with a group of the school’s teachers to get Ms. Catania fired and replaced with a Black principal.
To implement this conspiracy, the defendants created what Ms. Catania claims to be the false narrative that Ms. Catania wanted to prevent teachers at the school from teaching Black history. The conspirators publicized that narrative, led protests against Ms. Catania, and lodged false complaints against her with the Department of Education. This conduct provoked a wave of negative publicity and harassment. Ms. Catania ultimately believed she faced a choice between resigning or facing disciplinary action for allegedly pretextual violations, so she resigned from her position.
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