ERIN GO WAA!
School event on St. Pat’s is anti-Irish bias: suit
HE’S CAUGHT between a shamrock and a hard place.
A city schoolteacher filed a civil rights complaint last week against the Department of Education for scheduling parent-teacher conferences on St. Patrick’s Day — denying him his right as an Irish-American to march in the Fifth Ave. parade honoring the saint.
Lawyers for Frank Schorn say the unlucky scheduling — which the school system has refused to change despite repeated requests from the City Council’s Irish Caucus — is particularly egregious because Mayor de Blasio recently added three holidays tothe school calendar for other ethnic and religious groups.
De Blasio gave kids and teachers the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha off, as well as the Lunar New Year.
“We are not asking that the mayor accommodate New York’s oldest immigrant community by declaring a school holiday,” said lawyer Brian O’Dwyer, a nephew of former Mayor William O’Dwyer and a leader in New York’s Irish community.
“We are instead asking that the Department of Education make a minor change to its schedule so that the religious observance of thousands of teachers and parents who celebrate the feast day of St. Patrick be recognized and honored.”
Schorn, a Queens resident who teaches at Intermediate School 318 in Brook- lyn, said putting the parent-teacher conferences at 4:30 p.m. on the Irish feast day is unfair to him as both an Irish-American and a Catholic.
“The insensitive scheduling of parent teacher meetings on March 17has put me in an untenable position of choosing between my ethnic and religious heritage and my duty to help my students,” said Schorn. Schorn said he had planned on catching the tail end of parade after classes ended for the day like he normally does.
He was especially looking forward to it because former Sen. George Mitchell, who helped broker the 1998 Northern Ireland peace agreement, is this year’s grand marshal. “He’s ahero of mine,” he said. But the teachers’ contract with the city requires all educators to attend parent-teacher conferences, which are held twice a year.
The complaint was filed with the city Human Rights Commission on Friday, claiming that the school system has refused all of their requests to amicably resolve the conflict.
“While schools are responsible for holding one of four parent-teacher conferences on St. Patrick's Day, schools should work with families to provide other opportunities to have parent conferences for those unable to attend,” said education spokeswoman Kaye Devora.