The DOE settled their last case that totaled $1.2 million dollars to discrimination lawsuits against Black educators who then Principal Minerva Zanca of Pan American High School in Queens discriminated against. The last case was against a theater teacher who now teaches theater at the award winning LaGuardia high school. You can read the Chief article Here.
If you remember Principal Mirnerva Zanca was defended by Superintendent Juan Mendez and were both sued for racial discrimination by the U.S. Attorney of New York. The DOE legal Department and leadership backed both the Principal and the Superintendent.and while Ms. Zanca was eventually removed as Principal and ended up as a guidance counselor in Brooklyn before retiring (forced?)in 2016. Superintendent Mendez remained in his position for another few yeas.
You can read more about Munerva Zanca Here and Here. For Superintendent Juan Mendez you can read him Here and Here.
1. Confused? Isn't Juan Mendez still a superintendent in Queens? How does this article claim that he remained as a sup for a few more years?
ReplyDelete2. Isn't this case still going on? Wasn't there a trial recently? What happened to the trial?
3. I had no clue she was removed as a principal and ended up as a guidance counselor? Was she ever an assistant principal or an EA?
Crazy shit. Why didn't the DOE/City settle this before heading to court? They settled every other case.
ReplyDeleteI heard of the notorious Minerva Zanca. She discriminated against anyone who wasn't Latino/Latina. I heard about teachers who went to interview at Pan Am and were told they would not be hired because they didn't speak Spanish. Isn't that racist? The racist went on to be a guidance counselor at ironically Frederick Douglas Academy. If she was removed when this first started, the city would have saved 1 million dollars. Obviously this city has enough money to pay out lawsuits but not enough to reduce class size. Crazy world we live in.
ReplyDeleteAge and racial discrimination is well alive. It is Tweed's culture.
ReplyDeleteShe looks so familiar... think I interviewed with her but got bad vibes after she pinched my ass after the interview. I was much younger back then. Butt did not sag and was running 3 to 5 miles a day. Had I known she was a racist I would have taken one for the team and worked there. Could have kept her grounded and given her what she wanted. Sorry I let you guys and girls down. Hindsight is 20/20.
ReplyDeleteA bit off story here but had to post about bloomberg and the debate the other night. I always said while he was here as mayor that bloomberg was a guy with one great idea in life that made him rich but I always felt bloomberg was really a guy who was clueless about most issues especially in education.
ReplyDeleteToday I sit and suffer as an atr simply because of jerk bloomberg who single handily destroyed the livelihoods of great hard working educators because he thought he knew better. So many of my colleagues whether its the science teacher with 20 plus years experience or the english teacher with 25 years experience to the social workers and guidance counselors with ample experience reduced because of bloomberg and his time here as mayor in control of our schools.... in reality the kids are the ones suffering as well.
Watching this guy the other night confirmed my conviction that bloomberg is one total jerk and he sounded like a little girl spewing and babbling just like he did with our schools...creepy bastard needs a dose of reality.
Pan American High School, for those of you who don't know, is a high school exclusively for "students from Hispanic countries who have been in the U.S. less than 4 years". ALL the teachers are bilingual by necessity, as are the guidance counselors, secretaries, etc. The memos handed out are bilingual. Get it? So if teachers who did not speak Spanish were not hired, I can understand that. Most of the students do not speak English, at least at first. I saw plenty of teachers there who were not Hispanic, BTW, but they spoke fluent Spanish. Also, all of the teachers were pretty young. There were no grey heads in the faculty lounge there. I had little problem while assigned there, because I can speak Spanish although I am not Hispanic. Minerva Zanca treated me very well and was very friendly to me. I can't speak about her relations with other teachers, but I never had anything but a friendly professional relationship with her while I was assigned there. I was handling all manner of classes--science, art, English, you name it. I even was invited by the kids to come outside at lunch time and play volleyball with them. It was one of my better gigs.
ReplyDelete@10:40 am...that's nice. I guess she is both a blatant and a racist who can be pleasant. Meh...she's bi-racist.
DeleteThere are bilingual Spanish students all over the city. This was the only place that required you to speak Spanish. No other high school I heard of requires that. Why are they teaching English classes in Spanish anyway, and just because she wasn't rude to you doesn't mean she's not a bad person. Hitler never did anything to me. Do you think he was bad? There has to be some truth in all the lawsuits that were against her and someone like that shouldn't be allowed to be around kids.
ReplyDelete@12:41 pm: I agree with you
DeleteThe fact that we even now have schools like this one in the nycdoe is pitiful and this is how a city becomes infested and taken over by others from around the globe by laying down and playing the fool...no other country in the world would surrender their culture and language and play the fool..instead of demanding that others acquiesce to our culture and language we are bowing like the fools we are...pitiful
ReplyDeleteI taught in the same school as Minerva. Never heard a racist peep out of her. While principal she hired two retired friends of mind on F status and as subs at different times to teach literacy. She knew these people from her teaching days. I can tell you that neither of them was fluent in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteI find the allegations hard to believe but I wasn't there.
@9:46am...exactly, you weren't there. Let's focus on those who were there and shared their story.
Delete12:41: I stated that "I can't speak about her relations with other teachers..." In other words, I specified that Zanca was pleasant to ME; I never denied she wasn't nice to OTHER teachers. I never personally saw her relate to other teachers and I never discussed her in the faculty lounge with other teachers, so I have no personal data to have an opinion.
ReplyDelete2:34: I agree with you that I thought it was ridiculous to have a special high school for Hispanic newcomers to the U.S. And it's not the only one. This is an International school and it is my understanding that there are a couple others in NYC. The students (probably a lot of them illegally here in the U.S.) are absolutely cosseted and pampered; one morning, I even saw the teachers making them fresh waffles with a waffle iron in the lobby, a reward for coming to school on time. There were flags representing all the Hispanic countries hanging in the lobby. They had a gleaming new high school building and new lab equipment when most students have an older building with old equipment to attend. Most of the students were nice kids, but there were some really rotten foul ones as well, ones we could do without in this country and who very well might have been gang members.
@11:46... Why share an opinion if you have no personal data?
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