Kirkland-Hudson v. Mount Vernon City Sch. Dist.
| Decision Date | 29 March 2023 |
| Docket Number | 21-CV-695 (KMK) |
| Parties | JOSEPHINE KIRKLAND-HUDSON, Plaintiff, v. MOUNT VERNON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Bryan Glass, Esq. Glass Harlow & Hogrogian LLP New York, NY Counsel for Plaintiff
Gerald S. Smith, Jr., Esq. Deanna L. Collins, Esq. Silverman and Associates White Plains, NY Counsel for Defendants
Josephine Kirkland-Hudson (“Plaintiff”) brings this Action against the Mount Vernon City School District/Board of Education (“District”), Felicia Gaon (“Gaon”), Susan Burnett (“Burnett”) Rachel DePaul (“DePaul”), Karalyne Sperling (“Sperling”), Marcie E. Tiggs (“Tiggs”), and Kenneth R. Hamilton (“Hamilton”) (collectively “Defendants”), alleging that Defendants unlawfully maintained a hostile work environment discriminated, and retaliated against her on the basis of her race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the New York State Human Rights Law (“NYSHRL”). Plaintiff additionally alleges Defendants unlawfully maintained a hostile work environment, discriminated, and retaliated against her on the basis of her disability in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12132, et seq., and the NYSHRL and failed to reasonably accommodate her in violation of the ADA. (See id.) Finally, Plaintiff brings claims of interference and retaliation against the District, Tiggs, and Hamilton in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601, et seq. (See id.) Before the Court is Defendants' Motion To Dismiss (the “Motion”) Plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”). (See Not. of Mot. (Dkt. No. 69).) For the following reasons, Defendants' Motion is granted in part and denied in part.
The District is a school district within the State of New York at which Plaintiff was employed. (SAC ¶ 10-11.)
Plaintiff is a Black social worker employed with the District since 2005. (Id. ¶¶ 18-19.) Since the 2017-2018 school year she has been assigned to both the Lincoln School (“Lincoln”) and the Rebecca Turner Elementary School (“Rebecca Turner”). (Id. ¶ 9.)
Gaon was the former Director of Student Services until she resigned in June 2020. (Id. ¶ 12.) She was originally hired as the Director of Special Education in 2013. (Id.)
DePaul was the Interim Director of Student Services from September 2021 until she resigned on December 31, 2021. (Id. ¶ 13.) She was originally hired as the Assistant Director of Special Education. (Id.)
Burnett is Caucasian, was the former Special Education Supervisor, and was Plaintiff's direct supervisor at Rebecca Turner. (Id. ¶¶ 14, 25.) She was employed with the District from September 2018 until she resigned on July 21, 2020. (Id.)
Sperling is Caucasian, was the former Special Education Supervisor, and was Plaintiff's direct supervisor at Lincoln. (Id. ¶¶ 15, 25.) She was employed with the District from October 2019 until she resigned on October 15, 2021. (Id.)
Hamilton has been employed with the District as Superintendent of Schools since 2014, resigning from the District effective June 30, 2022. (Id. ¶ 16.)
Tiggs was employed with the District as Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. (Id. ¶ 17.)
Beginning in the 2015-16 school year, Plaintiff and her fellow social workers began to notice a shift in the treatment of the District's Black social workers, through unbalanced schedule assignments and targeted disciplinary actions. (Id. ¶ 22.) In March 2016, Plaintiff drafted a letter on behalf of Mount Vernon City School District's social workers addressed to Gaon and Hamilton demanding equitable treatment, fair distribution of caseloads, and documenting the disproportionate number of disciplinary actions targeting Black social workers. (Id. ¶ 23.) Plaintiff alleges the letter contributed to Gaon's probationary period being extended an additional year. (Id.) Though the letter was not signed, Plaintiff alleges Gaon discovered that Plaintiff drafted the letter. (Id.) Since drafting the 2016 letter, Plaintiff has been assigned an “unbalanced counseling schedule” despite her objections. (Id.)
In the 2018-2019 school year, Plaintiff was assigned to service students with mandatory counseling plans at two schools-Rebecca Turner for two days and Lincoln for three days. (Id. ¶ 25.) Plaintiff needed to service 26 students at Rebecca Turner and 13 students at Lincoln. (Id. ¶ 26.) Plaintiff alleges she knew that she could not provide all the sessions needed at Rebecca Turner if she was only spending two days per week there. (Id.)
During the 2018-2019 school year, a union meeting was held where Plaintiff discovered that only Black social workers were assigned unbalanced schedules which had a negative impact on the educational needs of students with disabilities. (Id. ¶ 27.) At the end of the meeting, DePaul told Plaintiff that Gaon purposefully assigned her an unbalanced schedule because of Plaintiff's 2016 letter which delayed Gaon's tenure by a year. (Id.)
During a faculty meeting at Rebecca Turner in 2018, Burnett commented that a Black Special Education child with autism would wind up at Rikers Island. (Id. ¶ 28.)
For the 2019-20 school year, the number of Plaintiff's students on her caseload increased to 57 students between Lincoln (2.5 days and 13 students) and Rebecca Turner (44 students and 2.5 days). (Id. ¶ 30.)
Plaintiff experienced increased hostility during her interactions with Gaon and administrative staff, the majority of whom were non-Black. (Id. ¶ 31.) For example, Plaintiff was scrutinized for minor infractions that were regularly excused when committed by her Caucasian colleagues, such as being reprimanded for being a few minutes late to a meeting, while similarly situated Caucasian colleagues who showed up later than Plaintiff were not reprimanded. (Id.) Defendants would also cancel scheduled union meetings interfering with Plaintiff's union leadership duties to advocate on behalf of the members she represented. (Id.) Defendants ultimately decided to not have these meetings at all. (Id.) Plaintiff has been the “subject of two disciplinary actions involving fabricated performance issues and enforcing unrealistic work expectations only against Plaintiff's work.” (Id.)
Plaintiff filed a Level 1 grievance against Gaon and Burnett on September 23, 2019, regarding violations of the Mount Vernon Federation of Teachers Collective Bargaining Agreement regarding her schedule, working conditions, the student services committee, and the labor-management relations committee which was resolved by way of agreement reached on October 10, 2019. (Id. ¶ 32.)
On October 8, 2019, Plaintiff filed a formal internal complaint of race discrimination and harassment with the District's Human Resources Department against Gaon which was unanswered by the District. (Id. ¶ 33.) In retaliation for filing the complaint, Gaon “interfered with attempts to stop Plaintiff from going to [a] union meeting” she had permission to attend, embarrassing her in front of nearly 50 clinicians and supervisors. (Id. ¶ 34.)
Plaintiff's September 23, 2019, grievance was denied shortly after she filed her complaint with the Human Resources Department. (Id. ¶ 35.) On October 17, 2019 Gaon sent Plaintiff an email rescinding the grievance agreement reached on October 10, 2019 and rescinding a previous scheduling agreement. (Id.) On October 20, 2019, Plaintiff sent Gaon an email asking her what “terms were not met,” to which she never responded. (Id. ¶ 36.) Plaintiff filed a Level 2 grievance on October 25, 2019, and a meeting was held on November 1, 2019, with the then Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, Denise Gagne-Kurpiewski, and Jeanne Casino, the union grievance chairperson. (Id.) On November 7, 2019, Plaintiff's second grievance was denied without explanation. (Id.)
On January 29, 2020, Plaintiff filed a follow-up letter regarding her race discrimination internal complaint with the Human Resources Department, which was not answered. (Id. ¶ 38.)
On May 6, 2020, when the District was working remotely due to COVID-19, Gaon and Burnett requested to have a remote meeting with Plaintiff to discuss her professional responsibilities and suggested she bring a union representative. (Id. ¶ 39.) The meeting was held on May 12, 2020; that same day Plaintiff received “a threatening disciplinary letter of counsel for ‘not completing a schedule'” from Bennett that was copied to Gaon and DePaul. (Id.) The next day during a Zoom staff meeting, Sperling informed attendees that they would need to submit their remote schedules because of “one or two bad apples.” (Id. ¶ 40.)
Plaintiff applied to work in the extended school year program for the summer of 2020 on June 8, 2020 which she had worked at the previous two summers. (Id. ¶ 41.) On July 7, 2020 Plaintiff found out she was not selected for summer work and accordingly could not earn additional income and seniority with respect to the summer program. (Id.) Plaintiff inquired as to why she was not hired on July 12, 2020, to which DePaul responded that there was less work available. (Id.) Plaintiff later learned that “work was in fact available.” (Id.) d. 2020-2021 School Year
On September 16, 2020, Gaon “retaliated” against Plaintiff by issuing her a letter of counsel for Plaintiff having logged off a Zoom meeting that was being recorded without Plaintiff's consent on September 10, 2020. (Id. ¶ 42.) On February 4, 2021,...
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