The city Department of Education has agreed to pay more than $1.1 million to four educators after it allowed a Queens principal to torment three black teachers — including saying one “looked like a gorilla in a sweater.”
The payout will go to the three teachers at the Pan American International High School and an assistant principal who was retaliated against after speaking out against the abuse, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.
The settlement will end civil suits brought by the educators and a federal civil rights complaint filed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
The principal of Pan American International, Minerva Zanca, began the racial discrimination abuse when she attempted to get two of the untenured black teachers fired by giving them unsatisfactory lesson scores, according to the suits.
The assistant principal refused to go along with the scheme, according to the suit, and Zanca accused him of “sabotaging her plan” and had him removed from the school by security.
She targeted the third black teacher by ending a successful theater program the teacher oversaw at the school, according to the suit.
Zanca also made racist statements about the teachers to the assistant principal, saying one of them “looked like a gorilla in a sweater,” and that she could never have “f–king nappy hair” like her.
The discrimination was brought to the attention of DOE Superintendent Juan Mendez, who did not punish Zanca even after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found reasonable cause that she’d discriminated against the teachers.
“The discrimination in this case was invidious, unlawful, and counter to our core values. This Office will remain vigilant in ensuring that employers who do not comply with Title VII are held to account,” Berman said in a statement.
“As an educator, Ms. Zanca spent her entire career serving students and categorically denies the allegations of discrimination,” said a city Law Department spokesman. “Ultimately, we determined that a settlement was in the best interests of Ms. Zanca and the DOE to put this case behind us.”