Ethical Culture Fieldston School: Elite NYC institution sued by transportation commissioner for discrimination
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Bronx's Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), headed by Joe Algrant, has been sued by New York City Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez for racial discrimination against his two daughters.
According to Rodriguez and his top-ranking Department for Education educrat wife, Cristina Melendez, the $63,000-a-year school discriminated against their older daughter, 16, and expelled their 10-year-old younger daughter as retaliation for the family's complaints, as per Daily Mail.
The Manhattan federal lawsuit further alleged that the couple's daughters were treated inappropriately after they complained to the school's administration about racial hostilities plaguing the upscale Riverdale institution.
According to court documents, after Melendez protested, Head of School Joe Algrant expelled her younger daughter in September 2022, prior to the start of the fourth grade.
Cristina Melendez, the NYC DOE's $195K-a-year executive director of Family and Community Engagement, FACE, sent her two daughters to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.
— Susan Edelman (@SusanBEdelman) October 7, 2023
Now she's suing the pricey private school for racial bias. @matthewsedacca https://t.co/o9GOYBRiz7
The ultra-woke school has previously sought a ballet teacher who was "committed to challenging Western dance forms" and a biology teacher who has "an understanding of and commitment to cultural competency."
What did the Transportation Commissioner's lawsuit claim?
Melendez, executive director of the Department of Education's Office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE), and her daughters initially filed the lawsuit in June.
The lawsuit claimed that Fieldston "purposefully and intentionally discriminated against persons of color . . . and purposefully and intentionally retaliated against persons of color . . . who complained about racism at the school."
The legal filings further contend that white students who routinely engaged in racist behavior and committed biased acts that went unpunished created a "racially charged school atmosphere" for the children.
Racist behaviors included white students placing watermelons in a black administrator's office in 2016 and recording themselves singing the N-word in 2018.
According to court documents, ninth-grade math teacher Stephanie Weber made Rodriguez's eldest daughter take her tests in class while allowing white children to take their exams home during the 2021–22 academic year.
Additionally, Weber allegedly made fun of the teenager in front of her classmates, while white children who exhibited similar behavior were ignored.
The elder sister, who had been a student at Fieldston since kindergarten in 2012, withdrew from the school when the jeers persisted, per the court documents.
The lawsuit alleged that Weber falsely accused Rodriguez's elder daughter of cheating on an in-class assignment the day after Melendez complained to the school about the teacher's treatment of her daughter.
Fieldston reprimanded the younger sister for conveying "a clear message to other students and families of color at the school that criticism of the school’s racially hostile environment would have dire consequences," the lawsuit claimed.
Four discrimination suits in 3 years against ECFS
The lawsuit is one of at least four that have been filed against the progressive school in the last three years for discrimination.
A pair of black former students who claim they experienced racist harassment from peers and professors while attending Fieldston filed two separate lawsuits against the school earlier this year.
A Fieldston alumnus complained in 2021 that the institution did not give her black children the same academic opportunity as their white classmates and failed to punish white pupils who exhibited severe racism.
Rodriguez's girls and their mother are suing the institution, its present and previous management, and its teachers for an undetermined amount of damages.
A Fieldston representative informed the New York Post that the school has now addressed many of the complaints in the lawsuit, several of which date back to 2016.
The school recently increased the size of its "Community and Social Impact" department, the spokesperson added.
"We treat all allegations of this kind extremely seriously and ECFS prioritizes our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by striving to create a welcoming environment where all students can excel," the Fieldston spokesperson added.