Old news, 2006, but I never heard about it.


Archived Link

For those who can't access the link, here is the article:


Former Brentwood Middle School teacher Elizabeth Kandrac has sued the Charleston County School District, claiming she lost her job because she complained about problems at the North Charleston school.

In the federal lawsuit filed Monday, Kandrac also reiterated her complaints that students frequently mistreated and cursed her because she is white, and that former Principal Wanda Marshall did not discipline students the teacher sent to the office. According to the suit, Marshall told Kandrac to deal with the bad behavior herself because "that's just the way they are."

"The students' conduct was known, tolerated and consciously ignored" by Marshall, the suit reads. "Deliberately ignoring such treatment of white employees ... is tantamount to racial discrimination."

Students cursed at all teachers, black or white, said Kandrac's lawyer, Larry Kobrovsky. But white teachers were "cursed at racially," and Marshall never addressed it, he said.

The lawsuit criticizes Marshall's decision to read the poem "Nikki-Rosa" by Nikki Giovanni to all students over the intercom during "Read Across America Month" in March.

The poem ends: "And I really hope no white person ever has cause/ to write about me/ because they never understand/ Black love is Black wealth and they'll/ probably talk about my hard childhood/ and never understand that/ all the while I was quite happy."

"That fans the flames," Kobrovsky said.

Kandrac filed discrimination complaints last spring with the state Human Affairs Commission and federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After learning in April that administrators did not renew her teaching contract for 2004-05, she went public with the complaints.

A week later, the bicycle she rode to school was vandalized. Administrators told her to pack her belongings and placed her on leave with pay for the rest of the school year. She then revised her EEOC complaint to include retaliation.

In September, the EEOC gave her the go-ahead to sue. Also that month, the school board voted to reinstate Kandrac, provided she first take four college courses. Kandrac turned down the offer, saying she could not afford to quit work and go back to school. She ran unsuccessfully for school board in November.

Kandrac taught reading this semester at Trident Technical College. She also tutored North Charleston students who tested below grade level on state-standardized tests. In January, she will begin teaching at a private school.

The suit names the school district, Marshall and Associate Superintendent Darrell Johnson as defendants. It demands a jury trial.

District spokeswoman Tricia Crimminger said the district can't comment on the personnel issue.