A former city schools administrator filed a $20 million discrimination suit against the Department of Education and Chancellor Richard Carranza on Monday, claiming she was relen♕tlessly demeaned and forced from her job for being white.
Leslie Chislett became the fourth plaintiff to accuse Carranza of creating an atmosphere in which white DOE employees are “swiftly and irrevocably silenced, sidelined and punished” if they object to being stereotyped by their minority colleagues.
Chislett’s Manhattan Supreme Court suit says her treatment included a May meeting where co-workers stood up in succession to bash her for being incapable of “doing the work” of racial equity.
She’s seeking $10 million dollars in damages from the DOE and Carranza for allegedly violating the city Human Rights Law against racial discrimination, and another $10 million from Carranza personally if he’s “determined not to have individual liability” under the City Code.
Chislett, 60, who lives in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, formerly spearheaded the DOE’s AP for All program, an initiative hailed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as one of his administration’s signature education policy triumphs.
According to her suit, the DOE has been plunged into a state of racially fixated dysfunction where whites who object have been cast as irredeemable racists incapable of leadership and deserving of bel🐻ittle༒ment.
“Unfortunately, under Chancellor Carranza’s leadership, something has gone very wrong with the Equity and Excellence agenda,” Chislett said in a statement obtained by The Post.
After joining the DOE in 2007, Chislett was tapped to help lead the AP for All initiative in𓆉 2017 as executive dir💞ector of Advanced Academic Access.
But while the program consistently met its benchmarks under her stewardship, Chislett said she was targeted for harassment and denunciation because of he𒀰r race.
All DOE employees, Chislett said, currently find themselves immersed in racial “training” sessions where notions like “excellence and perfectionism” are decried as by-products of “white supremacy.”
During a January session, a DOE-sanctioned speaker explained that “equity would only be satisfied if children of color are privileged over Caucasian children in the classroom,” the suit states.
At a May 2018 gathering, speakers from an organization called Border Crossers explained to participants that “values of white culture are supremacist,” court papers state.
At a June 2018 presentation entitled “Beyond Diversity,” senior DOE executive Ruby Ababio-Fernandez told her audience that “there is white toxicity in the air and we all breathe it in” and that the thrust of her address was to “interrogate whiteness.”
When Chislett objected to the non-stop racial content, she was “marked as not willing to do the work of diversity,” the complaint argues.
On June 27, 2018, Carranza told assembled staffers at DOE headquarters to “get on board with this equity platform or leave,” the suit states.
The proclamation was a “totalitarian threat to his employees salaries and financial future that Carranza used to silence Caucasian DOE employees impact by his discriminatory actions for no other reason than their race,” according to court papers.
Chislett is being represented by lawyer Davida Perry, who also filed a $90 million discrimination suit on behalf of DOE✃ employees Lois Herrera, Jaye Murray and Laura Feijoo in May.
Chislett said she frequently clashed with underling D🐓eonca Renee, and once quizzed her for not being present at a meeting she was supposed to conduct.
Renee shot back that she “does not begin her day until 9:15” and later told Chislett “how dare you approach me out of your white privilege.”
The suit states that Renee soon began⛦ publicly excoriating Chislett at meetings and questioned her ability to serve in ♕a leadership capacity.
At a February meeting held by DOE racial consultant Darnisa Amante, Renee targeted Chislett’s commitment to the cause, according to the suit.
“I wonder if members of our leadership team are defending their own comfort,” she said.
Despite this internal discord, Chislett said the AP for All initiative was thriving to the point that Carranza and 💝de Blasio held a celebratory press conference.
But when it came time to appear in front of the cameras, Chislett wasn’t invited, the suit states.
Chislett’s complaints were met with either indifference or retributive hostility, according to court papers. She was eventually stripped of managerial duties and went from supervising 15 staffers to none, according to her suit.
Fearing that she would soon be excised entirely, Chislett hired an attorney in April — a move that intensified the resentment towards her, the suit states.
That month, members of her division were told that there would be additional racial training — and that participants had to begin their conversations with the statement “as a black woman or as a white woman,” papers state.
At another meeting that same month, the DOE’s Executive Director of Educational Equity, Paul Forbes, said that he was unconcerned by mounting scrutiny of the department’s practices “because this chancellor truly has our back.”
Chislett reached her limit at a May inquisition helmed by Ababio-Fernandez where she was singled out as a dangerous dissident who “should just go.”
“Sitting among us there are those that don’t believe,” Ababio-Fernandez told roughly 50 people.
With that, C𒉰hislett said she was castigated in ritualꦅ fashion.
Ababio-Fernandez “permitted other members of [the Office of Equity and Access] to stand up in protest of Chislett, one-by-one stating names of children in their life that motivated them to pursue equity work and that they were protecting from people like Chislett,” the suit states.
During the same meeting, “numerous members of the team were permitted to literally stand and berate Chislett, in her workplace, and openly shame her by saying ‘You are not willing to do the work,’ despite her contributions to AP for All’s accomplishment of its goals.”
Chislett left the meeting in tears and eventuall🐈y quit the DOE in September after taking medical leave.
In a prepared statement, DOE spokesman Will Mantell said: “We reject these allegations of ‘reverse racism.’”
“We’re focused on serving kids and families, and we’ll continue to foster a supportive environment for all our employees. We’ll continue our work towards equity and excellence for all students, and we’ll review the lawsuit,” Mantell added.