NEW ROCHELLE, NY — A long-simmering dispute with the New Rochelle school system, involving allegations of racial and ethnic harassment, has begun to boil over, drawing in senior administration officials, union leadership and a former school board member into what has become a major policy test and potential embarassment for recently-installed Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne.
Osborne has spoken often about his desire to develop a close relationship with hispanic families in the District, highlighting his ability to speak Spanish and time spent working in a a largely Hispanic New York City neighborhood earlier in his career. Despite this, he has been unable to tamp down what is becoming an increasingly serious matter.
Last week we reported on an ongoing dispute within the City School District of New Rochelle involving allegations that a white teacher made derogatory, racist comments towards an hispanic employee at one of the elementary schools.
According to an email obtained by Talk of the Sound, the hispanic employee has alleged that she has experienced years of harassment in the form of “derogatory and racist commentary” dating back to 2009.
The controversy escalated on Wednesday when a scheduled meeting called by Joseph Williams, Assistant to the Superintendent for Human Resources, was abruptly cancelled by Williams as the result of a disagreement as to whether the complainant was entitled to be represented by a person of her choice.
The teacher, who is white, is a well-connected person in New Rochelle whose father, a lawyer, was a prominent elected official in New Rochelle and who now represents the school district.
The complainant is an hispanic service-related professional (SRP) working in the same school as the teacher.
Both parties are members of the F.U.S.E. union.
The representative chosen by the complainant was Martin Sanchez, a former member of the New Rochelle Board of Education, well-known for his advocacy in New Rochelle’s hispanic community.
When Sanchez appeared for the meeting — which was moved at the last minute from City Hall to the school where both women work — he was denied entry. At that point, according to Sanchez, Williams cancelled the meeting.
Mr. Sanchez objected to being blocked from the meeting, citing Article 1.11 of the F.U.S.E. contract which states:
“An employee is entitled to a representative of his/her choice except that no such representative may be an officer of any employee organization other than FUSE.”
Both the District and the F.U.S.E. each which seems intent on protecting the interests of the white teacher over the hispanic SRP, have argued that Sanchez is not allowed to represent the SRP in a meeting because he is not part of the union nor an employee of the District.
The contract makes clear that an employee can have “a representative of his/her choice” at such a meeting. The only exception is that the chosen representative cannot be “an officer of any employee organization other than FUSE” or, in plain-English, the representative cannot be part of the leadership of a union other than F.U.S.E. which does not apply to Martin Sanchez.
Sanchez was on the school board several years ago during the infamous Isaac Young Noose Case which took place prior to the launch of Talk of the Sound.
In an email to Joseph Williams, Sanchez reminded the HR official that in that case the victim, Robert Johnson, was allowed to have a pastor and a representative from the NAACP sit with Johnson during meetings with the District.
Sanchez also reminded the District that the purpose of the meeting Williams cancelled was for the complainant to present her allegations of current and past derogatory and racist remarks, something Sanchez says she has done in the past to no avail.
In his email, Sanchez states that the complainant has been simply asking that she be treated respectfully, allowed to do her job and, possibly, an apology from the teacher in question.
The email ends with a thinly-veiled “or else”: “If this cannot occur without the need of costly and public litigation on the part of the district, then she will have no choice but to direct herself to Robert Rose at the [U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission].”
Such a move would turn this long-running dispute into, literally, a federal case.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Talk of the Sound has no way to determine whether the allegations are true. No formal complaint has been filed and no direct evidence made available to us. Until such time as direct evidence becomes available or a formal complaint is filed, Talk of the Sound will to continue to withhold the names of the parties in this dispute.