Big win in race suit vs. DOE
Three white female executives who worked for the city Department of Education and claimed they were demoted in favor of less-qualified people of color have been handed a momentous victory in their blockbuster $90 million lawsuit.
Lois Herrera, Jaye Murray and Laura Feijoo launched the lawsuit five years ago against then-Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and the DOE under Mayor Bill de Blasio, claiming staff were being discriminated against based on race.
The city motioned to dismiss the allegations in November 2022 — but this week Judge Mary Kay Viskocil ruled that the women “offer evidence of a policy of race-based discrimination at Carranza’s DOE” — paving the way for a trial or possible settlement.
Speaking exclusively to The Post for the first time since filing suit in 2019, Herrera, Murray and Feijoo detailed the crippling effects the case has had on them.
“The demotion and sidelining has had a tremendous negative impact on my life,” said Herrera, who had been working as the CEO of the Office of Safety and Youth Development when she was abruptly stripped of her title and replaced.
“I have suffered from depression and trauma from being unjustly removed from my position,” she said. “I was subjected to intentional public embarrassment and social isolation.”
Feijoo, who had been working as a senior superintendent for labor and policy when she was replaced by an underling, said her “career has been permanently altered” as a result.
“Opportunities to continue to do what I love have disappeared. Most importantly, the opportunity to continue to serve the students of New York City is forever lost,” she said.
Herrera and Feijoo have since retired from the DOE, while Murray still holds a position but works from home, with no title, supervisor or distinct role.
Chancellor’s agenda
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Carranza’s DOE was accused of a crusade against “toxic” whiteness, with a push to overhaul leadership and a change in attitude at the department.
Herrera claimed in the suit that she saw a sea change almost immediately after de Blasio appointed Carranza in April 2018.
A month later, LaShawn Robinson, then the executive director of the DOE’s Office of Equity and Access, allegedly told white attendees of a training seminar that they “had to take a step back and yield to colleagues of color” and “recognize that values of white culture are supremacist,” Herrera heard from a fellow administrator, according to the suit.
Robinson was not named as a defendant in the suit.
Transferred away
Despite being Harvard-educated and having been recognized as recently as 2017 for contributing to the “safest year on record” in city schools, Herrera was dropped three rungs on the ladder. Without so much as a formal search or interview process, Herrera was replaced by a black man, Mark Rampersant, despite his being “demonstrably less qualified,” the suit claims.
Herrera said she was “required” to attend Rampersant’s promotion ceremony and her repeated requests for a new workstation were met with her belongings being stuffed into boxes and stashed under a headquarters stairwell, before she was ultimately transferred to The Bronx ahead of her retirement.
When Rampersant took Herrera’s spot, Murray was told that she would now report to him, representing a demotion, according to the suit.
Feijoo, meanwhile, claimed that she was among the earliest casualties of Carranza’s overhaul.
When Carranza was appointing his first deputy chancellor, he tapped Cheryl Watson-Harris, who is black, over Feijoo, who was Watson-Harris’ boss — without so much as interviewing Feijoo, the suit states.
The City Law Department declined to comment.