Former teacher sues North Bellmore for age bias

A former North Bellmore School District music teacher is suing the district, charging age discrimination because she was denied tenure. North Bellmore had attempted to block the suit from moving forward, but a federal judge recently ruled that it could proceed.

Judge Pamela Chen of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn rejected the North Bellmore School District’s request that the discrimination suit be dismissed in a Sept. 26 decision. Now Dania Hall, 68, and her lawyers will try to prove that she was unfairly denied tenure and then terminated because of her age and sex, which would violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

Hall was 56 when she was hired as a probationary music teacher in North Bellmore in August 2002. She taught violin, viola, cello and bass in the then-six area elementary schools, in addition to conducting the district-wide string orchestra. Hall first brought the suit against the district in May 2008.

In her decision, Chen said the fact that all North Bellmore probationary music teachers who made tenure from 2002 to 2010 were more than a decade younger than Hall provides a “basis for inferring that discrimination played an essential part in [Hall’s] tenure denial and termination.” She also wrote that Hall might not have received the number of evaluations she was entitled to because of her age, adding that she received generally positive reviews from all but one of the local principals.

Hall became eligible for tenure in 2005, but she was denied it and then let go on June 30 that year. Records show that, in meetings with former superintendent Dominic Mucci, Newbridge Road School Principal Marilyn Hirschfield brought forth concerns that she had after receiving parent complaints about Hall.

Hirschfield said she received two complaints from parents about Hall during her second year of teaching and one in her third academic year. But Chen said she “made no effort to investigate” parent allegations of unfair treatment.