NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Jeffrey Kehl, the lawyer for the City School District of New Rochelle, has acknowledged that a tenured elementary school teacher at Ward Elementary School engaged in interactions with a cleaner with permanent employment status at the school that “fell materially short of the standards of civility and respect which the School District expects from employees in general, and from professional staff in particular.”
In a letter to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission responding to a complaint by Guadalupe Mounir, Kehl stated that Jennifer Rippa-Jones was “admonished for her prior conduct; given instructions about her future behavior both in general and specifically with respect to Ms. Mounir; and informed that if she cannot follow those instructions, she will be subject to further action including transfer to another school.”
“This is a major victory not only for Ms. Mournir but for all of the non-teachers who are able to stand up against the administration without fear.,” said Martin Sanchez, a labor lawyer and former school board who assisted Mournir in bringing her complaint forward.
Rippa-Jones is the daughter of Vincent Rippa, former Mayor of New Rochelle and an attorney who works for the City School District of New Rochelle.
Mournir file a complaint with the EEOC late last year after she says her complaints about Rippa-Jones were ignored over a period of years. Mournir alleged that Rippa-Jones had discriminated against her based on race and nationality as part of a broader pattern of conduct in which she was rude and mean-spirited. Mournir is of Hispanic ethnicity and was born in Mexico. By his letter to the EEOC, Kehl is acknowledging that Mournir’s right to work in a hostile-free environment we denied by the conduct of Rippa-Jones. Kehl denied there was a basis for a complaint based on race and ethnicity.
Kehl states in his letter that Mounir met with Assistant to the Superintendent for Human Resources Joe Williams as well as Kehl and Sanchez on December 5, 2014, at which her concerns were reviewed in detail. Kehl stated that “Mounir came to the meeting well-prepared, and gave a particularized history of her interactions with Ms. Rippa-Jones; she also brought documentary materials and photographs which she felt would be helpful to the School District’s inquiry.” Williams interviewed Rippa-Jones, and also conducted multiple interviews of other teachers and support staff in the building, several of whom corroborated Mournir’s account.
“It also bears mention that Ms. Mounir is, in addition to being an effective and conscientious employee, a much-admired member of the Ward Elementary School community who has for many years gone out of her way voluntarily to assist teachers and students in making the school a welcoming and attractive educational setting,” wrote Kehl. “It is a priority for the School District that she feel secure, valued and empowered during her working day.”
“Ms. Mounir has been informed of the instructions which have been given to Ms. Rippa-Jones; told of the esteem in which she is held; and encouraged promptly to report any future issues so that any necessary action can be taken,” Kehl added.
Kehl’s letter was written in the hopes of convincing the EEOC that the District has taken appropriate action and that the EEOC case against the district be closed.