After what she says were years of racial discrimination that include a request from a fellow teacher to speak in "slave talk," a Black educator in New York is fighting back.
According to NBC News, Andrea Bryan has been a high school English teacher with the Cormack School District on Long Island for 17 years. In those 17 years, she was the only Black teacher at her school, and she says she has faced a parade of prejudiced remarks made by both faculty and scholars.
In the lawsuit filed on December 19, Bryan asserts the discrimination became worse soon after she reported a grievance against the Cormack High School English department's head teacher in 2015.
The Hill reports Bryan made the complaint after the teacher asked, “Andrea, can you translate slave talk for me?” in front of their department as they made preparations to teach students The Crucible. In her suit, Bryan says the incident made her feel "humiliated, degraded and embarrassed."
According to Insider, the very same teacher told her she couldn't have any of the food left out on the table in the English faculty lounge because it was "for whites only."
That teacher was demoted following an investigation into Bryan's complaints. However, Bryan claims little action has been taken against students who have hurled slurs at her.
For instance, her suit details a 2016 incident when a student called Bryan "Aunt Jemima" in front of a number of other students in the school cafeteria. While she sought a punishment for the student, the district decided not to take any action.
The school district refused to comment on the allegations contained Bryan's lawsuit, telling NBC it is investigating the teacher's grievances. In a statement it said, "The district takes any allegation of discrimination seriously and, as a matter of policy and practice, acts swiftly in response to any claim."
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