The superintendent and her deputy of Everett Public Schools have filed a lawsuit towards the town, its mayor and its college committee that alleges “institutional racism” and sexism led to their ouster.
The pair, Superintendent Priya Tahiliani — who the criticism says “identifies as Indian” and is the “first person of color to serve” within the position — was appointed to the job in December of 2019 to exchange Frederick Foresteire, who was faraway from workplace following a 30-year tenure attributable to quite a few sexual misconduct allegations for which he was convicted final month.
Tahiliani selected as her deputy Kim Tsai, who the criticism identifies as “one of the only Asian and Pacific Islander Deputy Superintendents” within the commonwealth.
The criticism alleges that their contracts weren’t renewed as a result of they participated in a federal probe of the college’s “discriminatory practices” and due to “blatant and overt acts of discrimination and retaliation.”
“Tahiliani and Tsai were subjected to demeaning and racist comments, abusive and disparate treatment, and unjustified and highly subjective discriminatory and retaliatory attacks. Their main offense? Being women of color who refused to maintain a ‘Whites only’ hiring policy for district level jobs,” the criticism filed Tuesday in federal courtroom in Boston alleges.
The pair describe their work a number of occasions within the criticism as superb, and but allege that Mayor Carlo DeMaria made their removing a private endeavor, for which they are saying racism and sexism is at fault.
“Mayor DeMaria had relatively little involvement with the School Committee until Tahiliani and Tsai — two non-white women — were appointed. Their appointment upset his apple cart,” the criticism alleges. “Where district level jobs under Foresteire had been 100% white, Tahiliani and Tsai brought about changes. They instituted a new practice and began hiring non-white applicants.”
DeMaria and the town of Everett responded in an announcement that they “vigorously deny Ms. Tahiliani’s and Ms. Tsai’s allegations.
“The credible facts of the matter demonstrate that Ms. Tahiliani and Ms. Tsai were never subjected to discrimination of any kind by the City and the Mayor and there is simply no evidence to the contrary,” the assertion continued.
Further, the assertion says that the town and the mayor “have long demonstrated, in numerous ways, that they will not tolerate discrimination of any kind against anyone on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, or any other protected class.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”