Department of Education Official Given Promotion After Lawsuit Alleging Racial Discrimination

New York City Schools Richard Carranza was sued last month by three white, female Department of Education (DOE) officials who allege in their lawsuit that Carranza demoted them because they were white and fostered a toxic environment.

“Under Carranza’s leadership, DOE has swiftly and irrevocably silenced, sidelined and punished plaintiffs and other Caucasian female DOE employees on the basis of their race, gender, and unwillingness to accept their other colleagues’ hateful stereotypes about them,” wrote the group’s lawyer, Davida S. Perry, in the lawsuit.

All three women were demoted at least two spots and replaced by people of color with significantly less experience, according to court documents.

One of the three women, Laura Feijoo, was just promoted in Westchester County, N.Y.

On Friday, Laura Feijoo was hired as superintendent of New Rochelle schools. As schools chief in New Rochelle, she is expected to make more than $250,000.

Under ex-Chancellor Carmen Fariña, Feijoo was senior supervising superintendent, a position in which she oversaw all 45 city superintendents – but she was demoted without reason when Carranza took over, despite the new person having little experience.

Feijoo, along with fellow white, female DOE executives Lois Herrera and Jaye Murray, filed a $90 million lawsuit against Carranza, alleging he pushed them aside for less qualified people of color in an environment “hostile toward whites,” according to The New York Post.

Herrera, despite her Harvard education and decades of experience, was abruptly stripped of her title and demoted three levels “to essentially the bottom of the … group she formerly led,” the suit says.

“I think it’s a hopeful sign that we’re appointing someone with deep academic experience who wants to return to individual achievement and accountability rather than identifying people by groups. She claims to be a victim of that,” New Rochelle activist Vincent Malfetano told The Post.

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