Axed L.I. principal sues
Claims Catholic school gave in to parents on race issue
A former Long Island Catholic-school principal claims he was wrongfully fired after diocese officials caved to pressure from parents upset that he told students about how he was racially profiled by the NYPD.
Tim Gely, who is Latino, shared his experiences with middle schoolers at the nowclosed St. Christopher school in Baldwin last year during a discussion about racial discrimination, according to his lawsuit filed in Nassau County Supreme Court on Jan. 6.
The day after a Black eighth-grader found handwritten notes in her desk with messages like “monkey,” “go hang yourself” and “this is why cops kill people like you,” Gely, 47, detailed how he was allegedly forced to the ground at gunpoint by NYPD officers as a kid in the Bronx.
“I was a victim of racial profiling, and I wanted to empathize with her, let her know I was in her corner and let her know she wasn’t alone,” Gely told the Daily News. “I wanted everyone to know this is not going to be tolerated at St. Christopher.”
Gely’s anecdote drew the ire of several parents — and ultimately cost him his job, he charges in his lawsuit against the St. Christopher school and church and the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
One parent, who identified herself as a “law enforcement officer,” wrote to St. Christopher pastor Nicholas Zientarski complaining that Gely’s story was “unnecessary and insulting” and that she “never witnessed such behavior” by fellow cops, according to the suit.
Just over a month later, Zientarski told parents he was placing Gely on administrative leave because of his “mishandling of recent student issues” and “ongoing communication deficiencies with faculty, parents, students and myself,” according to a copy of the notice reviewed by The News.
Gely denies the accusation of “communication deficiencies,” saying he went out of his way to alert diocesan officials about all his plans, including his approach to addressing the racist bullying incident.
Zientarski later allegedly charged that Gely mishandled other disciplinary incidents. Gely says he handled all those issues promptly, and that it was Zientarski who was “often unavailable for administrative matters,” leaving Gely to “handle incidents on his own,” according to the lawsuit.
Zientarski could not be reached for comment. Sean Dolan, the communications director for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which oversees the Church of St. Christopher, said Zientarski is no longer a pastor there and declined to talk about Gely’s suit, citing a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
Gely argues that the real reason for his June 2021 termination — which came just weeks before the end of the school year, when the school was already slated to close because of enrollment issues — was the result of pressure from parents who were unhappy with his talk about racial discrimination.
“I was advocating for this child who was a victim and no one else advocated for her,” Gely said. “She felt hurt and abandoned, and now I feel like I’m the one who’s abandoned, and I feel like the Catholic Church abandoned me and that child.”
Gely’s position at St. Christopher was not the only casualty.
In the months leading up to the school’s closure, Gely says he was recruited for and offered an assistant principal job at the St. Martin de Porres Marianist School in Uniondale — the same school where a white headmaster lost his job last year after The News reported he forced a Black child to get on his knees to apologize, calling it the “African way” to say sorry.
Shortly after Zientarski placed Gely on administrative leave, Gely got a call from Brother Kenneth Hoagland, a representative of the Marianist Brothers chapter that runs St. Martin de Porres, telling him the school was revoking the offer because Gely was “no longer the right candidate,” according to the lawsuit, which also names the St. Martin de Porres school.
Hoagland and the Marianist Brothers did not comment on the suit.
Gely, who grew up attending Catholic school and wanted to work in parochial schools to “give back,” said his experience over the past year has left him disillusioned, and he’s now applying to jobs at charter and public schools.
“I actually lost faith in the Catholic school system,” he said.