An ex-educator claiming the de Blasio administration knowingly permitted “racial harassment” against white staffers in the public school system — during anti-bias training sessions and in the workplace — can sue NYC, a federal appellate court ruled this week.
The bombshell decision on Thursday overturned a lower-court’s dismissal of a 2019 lawsuit by Leslie Chislett, a veteran administrator who led the Advanced Placement for All initiative in the city Department of Education. It paves the way for a trial or financial settlement with the city.
“She presented evidence that would allow a reasonable juror to find that the DOE consistently ignored racial harassment of Caucasian employees during ‘implicit bias’ trainings and workplace interactions,” the three-judge panel of the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found.
Chislett has mixed feelings about the ruling.
“While the higher court’s decision is a long-awaited vindication, it does not restore to me the longtime career that I loved and was successful in,” she told The Post.
“I knew at the time that what the DOE and its complicit leaders were doing was horribly divisive and unlawful,” she said, adding that former Mayor Bill de Blasio and his then-Chancellor Richard Carranza’s “anti-white policies were translated by their ignorant leaders into my daily humiliation and ridicule — something that was deeply wounding, and that I will never forget.”
Among multiple instances cited by the judges, a senior executive in the DOE’s Office of Equity and Access was quoted as saying in a diversity training session: “There is white toxicity in the air, and we all breathe it in.”
“Negative generalizations and stereotypes about white people were targeted specifically at Chislett during the trainings” in 2018, the judges found, when supervisors and staffers accused her of exhibiting traits of white supremacy.
“When Chislett disciplined or managed subordinates, she was allegedly called racist and labeled ‘white and fragile,’” the decision states.
“How dare you approach me out of your white privilege!” an underling is quoted as snapping at Chislett, who asked the staffer why she was late to a meeting she was supposed to help lead.
Chislett alleged that several higher-ups – including then-Deputy Chancellor LaShawn Robinson, who is black — ignored or rejected her repeated complaints of hostility, which became “unbearable,” leading her to take a medical leave and finally quit.
“A rational jury could find that the administration condoned the racial harassment,” the decision states.
Chislett’s lawyer, Davida Perry, said, “With this decision, the court has made it clear that discrimination based on race will not be accepted in any form.”
Perry represented three other white former DOE administrators who jointly sued the DOE, claiming Carranza demoted them in favor of less-qualified persons of color.
The city settled with the three women in April 2024 for a total $2.1 million, or $700,000 each.
Perry has not filed any similar lawsuits under Mayor Adams’ administration, she said. “The policy we sued over was developed by Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza. To date, we have not received similar complaints.”
De Blasio and Carranza have denied anti-white policies. The DOE referred questions to the city Law Department, which declined to comment.
The post Educator targeted for ‘white toxicity’ during anti-bias training can sue NYC for ‘racial harassment’ appeared first on New York Post.
