Head of swanky NYC prep school accused of ripping antisemitism task force as ‘power play by Jewish families’
The head of a swanky Manhattan prep school allegedly ripped a newly created antisemitism task force as a “joke” and nothing more than a “power play by Jewish families” to have him ousted, according to a new lawsuit.
Collegiate School’s top administrator, David Lourie, is accused of deriding the task force after it was set up by the school’s board of trustees to weed out any potential antisemitism on the Upper West Side campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court allege.
The claims were laid bare in a wide-ranging gender discrimination lawsuit filed earlier this week by the task force’s head, Anna Carello, who alleges Lourie forced her into the role because she’s a woman — and then repeatedly disparaged her to male colleagues.
As part of her role as task force leader, Carello — who is also associate head of school for academics — said she was ordered to speak with Collegiate families at the $63,400-per-year school to address issues Lourie “could not be bothered handling.”
“Mr Lourie declined to participate in the task force at all and expressed to Dr Carello that the task force was ‘a joke,’ ‘useless,’ and nothing more than a ‘power play by Jewish families’ and New York City Rabbis to oust Mr Lourie as Head of School,” the filing states.
She alleges Lourie tasked her with meeting parents because, in part, she would be “more sympathetic” as a woman, according to the suit, which was first reported on by the Daily Beast.
Carello claims Lourie then hampered her efforts as task force leader by leaving her out of key antisemitism-related discussions — including an instance where a teacher was placed on leave last November for showing a biased video about the Israel-Hamas war in his classroom.
She alleged she was the last to learn the teacher had been axed despite it being her job to oversee the educators in her role as the head of school for academics.
Still, after receiving overwhelming support from parents about her handling of the task force, Carello alleges the elite school’s head then set out to punish her, in part, by telling less-senior male staffers she was “undermining” him by meeting with Jewish families.
Carello claims it led to two male colleagues “chastising her” for the work she was doing on the task force, the court papers charge.
Separate to the task force allegations, Carello also claimed in the suit that Lourie made disparaging remarks about other female teachers and regularly dismissed complaints from her, as well as others, about gender bias.
In March, the school’s head allegedly described Carello to a less-senior male colleague as a “personnel issue,” the suit states.
Carello said her position at the school became “untenable” this spring due to Lourie’s alleged hostility, but she continued “to endure this environment” because of her “devotion to her students.”
She noted in the suit she would be resigning from Collegiate at the end of the academic year.
The filing of the lawsuit comes just days after a much-anticipated internal report about antisemitism at Collegiate admitted that some faculty members blamed “wealthy and influential” Jewish parents for tensions at the school after the Oct. 7 attack.
The nine-page report, released on May 17, came after more than 100 Jewish parents wrote to Lourie and Board of Trustees president Jonathan K. Youngwood late last year to complain the school’s response to the Hamas bloodshed “did not meet the moment.”
Collegiate — one of the Big Apple’s most tony private high schools — counts David Duchovny, rapper Lil Mabu, and noted nepobabies Jack Schlossberg and Cornelius Vanderbilt II among its most famous alumni.
Lourie didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
