NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - The New York City Department of Education and a district superintendent were accused of racial discrimination against employees in the New York County Supreme Court.
The complaint was filed on April 27 by plaintiffs Shaniquia Stanley, Pamela Russell and Marva Gumbs-Picou. Stanley and Russell were principals-in-excess for Community School District 6, meaning they were principals at schools that had closed so they remained employed without a school district and could be reassigned to a new school once a vacancy occurred, and Gumbs-Picou was an assistant principal-in-excess.
All three plaintiffs are Black women.
Defendant Manny Ramirez is the district superintendent. He is Dominican, the lawsuit says.
According to the complaint, Ramirez frequently discriminated against the plaintiffs by favoring Hispanic, primarily Dominican, hires for open leadership roles in the school district.
The superintendent also allegedly referred to his principals-in-excess as "the help," which the plaintiffs say is a demeaning racial slur referring to domestic servants.
The complaint says that multiple vacancies within the district that the plaintiffs were qualified for were filled with Dominicans and there was no hiring process in which the plaintiffs could have applied, to the point where of the district's 47 schools, 31 had Dominican principals.
The plaintiffs accuse the defendants of violating New York City Human Rights Law based on race. The plaintiffs are represented by Michael G. O'Neill of New York.