Springs Hit by Two Lawsuits
One current and one former Springs School employee have brought legal actions against the district, alleging discriminatory practices. Their claims bring pending actions to three, with Fran Silipo having already brought suit against the district claiming wrongful termination and a hostile environment.
Liz Tatiana Tucci, a native of Colombia who worked as a clerical employee between October 2006 and September 2015, is seeking lost compensation and punitive damages for what she has said was “relentless harassment, disparate treatment, and discrimination predicated upon her race and national origin.” Ms. Tucci said the way she was treated caused panic attacks and other physical problems. “It’s very sad,” she said. “I used to visualize my retirement in Springs because I really liked being there besides the stuff that went on. I said if I stayed there things would get better, and I would make a difference. But it never got better. It got worse.”
Gustavo Gomez, who is also of Latino origin, is a substitute custodian who had been a full-time employee between October 2007 and June 2010. He is also seeking compensation for lost wages and punitive damages, and wants his full-time job back.
“I feel discriminated against,” said Mr. Gomez, who filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also has filed a grievance with the Springs School District’s custodial union.
Ms. Tucci was hired as a bilingual clerk, a Civil Service position. According to the complaint filed in United States District Court, she was reassigned as the principal’s secretary in 2010, with a heftier workload equivalent to that of a senior clerk-typist, but with no corresponding pay increase. In 2013, after John J. Finello became the district superintendent, the district determined that she was working beyond what the title of her job called for, and she took Civil Service tests for senior clerk and senior clerk-typist positions.
She failed to qualify for the senior clerk-typist position, and was told the school needed one. She claims the district could have appointed her provisionally. Instead, Ms. Tucci said, she was asked to train someone else, which was humiliating. She believes she was treated unfairly and that her ethnicity was the reason.
“They were mandated by Civil Service to either promote me or to remove my duties,” Ms. Tucci said. “They never offered me the promotion, and it took them more than a year.”
Ms. Tucci has also said she was paid about $15,000 less than her predecessor when she was made the principal’s secretary, and that she experienced retaliation after expressing interest in forming a union with other clerical employees and calling Civil Service for clarifications. She also claims that she did not receive a Christmas gift from Mr. Finello although her colleagues did. Following a trip to Colombia for her grandmother’s funeral in August 2013, Ms. Tucci said, employees harassed her, asking if she had brought back cocaine.
Mr. Gomez began working as a substitute custodian at Springs in 2001 and was hired full time in 2007. In March 2010, he was informed by Michael Hartner, district superintendent at the time, that his position was likely to be eliminated. Mr. Gomez said that later that year he received a letter stating that “any full-time employee who is excessed will be placed on a recall list, giving them preferred eligibility in the event of future vacancies.” He was laid off from the full-time role, but continued to work as a substitute custodian. However, he said in an interview this week, when a full-time custodial position became vacant through a retirement, the district told him he would be rehired. Instead, he was eventually considered for the full-time job along with two other candidates. In August 2015, the district hired one of the other candidates.
Anna M. Scricca of Ingerman Smith, a law firm representing Springs, said Mr. Gomez’s complaint to the state Division of Human Rights “is entirely without merit.” She said the letter Mr. Gomez received about being recalled “was in all likelihood sent in error.” The district now believes his Civil Service employment class was not entitled to recall rights, she said.
Mr. Gomez has hired a labor attorney. Ms. Tucci is being represented by Steven Morelli, a Garden City attorney who is also representing Ms. Silipo, a former district clerk. That case is pending. Mr. Morelli also represented educators who sued Mr. Finello and two school board members when he was superintendent of the Huntington School District. The claims involved First and 14th Amendment rights, and the case eventually was settled. Mr. Finello was also named in a 2012 civil suit brought against the Huntington district by three tenured teachers who claimed the district had fired non-bilingual teachers who had more seniority than their bilingual colleagues. That case was dismissed.
Liz Mendelman, the Springs School Board president, said in a written statement Tuesday that the administration believes the claims of Mr. Gomez and Ms. Tucci “are simply without foundation.”
“When it comes to hiring, the district’s practices are defined by policies, procedures, and laws, which ultimately means we take our governance very seriously,” Ms. Mendelman wrote. “Those who have made claims or allegations against the district don’t share that accountability; they or their legal counselors can say anything they want to say, and have. But because we are protecting the interests of the district and its taxpayers, we cannot comment on these matters. . . . All I can say to our community is to be patient. We are upholding all of the principles of fairness and conformance to the law . . . and our genuine belief is that any claims made to date will be rejected by those charged with reviewing the facts.”