Malverne school district racial discrimination suit causes rift

Divisiveness tends to rear its ugly head in the Malverne school community, but some people are refusing to allow it.

The racial discrimination lawsuit that three black employees recently brought against the Malverne Union Free School District will undoubtedly have a polarizing effect, according to Bea Bayley, president of the NAACP Lakeview chapter. Bayley is among many who, believing bigotry has run rampant in the district, were not surprised to learn of the suit, which was filed in federal court in Central Islip earlier this month.

In fact, the allegations of discrimination — which include threats, retaliation and the use of slurs — have already created a rift between those in the Bayley camp and others who consider the charges, true or not, to be isolated and not representative of the district.

There is, however, one thing about which people on both sides of the argument can agree, and it is that having to focus on racial tensions instead of the business of education is shameful.

“A person who does a good job should be able to go to work free from all of that,” Bayley said. “The children should be allowed to have teachers who don’t have to think about that, and the parents should be reassured that they’re going to a school where people care about people.”

Joyce Berry, president of the Howard T. Herber Middle School PTA, said she does not want people, within or outside the Malverne school district, to forever associate it with its grievous racial history. “We need to move forward,” she told the Herald. “I’m tired of hearing about the racial thing. Let’s worry about the education of our children.”

The school community should also consider its children’s incidental education, Berry said, noting that kids are perceptive, particularly when it comes to things they have no business knowing. Berry learned about the lawsuit from her 11-year-old son, who attends sixth grade at Herber. “My son came home from school and said, ‘Ma, did you hear we’re being sued?’” she said. And I said, ‘Sued? What are you talking about?’ The kids knew what was going on. … That’s pretty sad.”

But Malverne’s racial tensions are not easily hidden — at least not at the high school, where students have been vocal about what they believe is inequality in the district’s hiring policies. In April, about a dozen current and former students attended a Board of Education meeting to express their opposition to the administration’s decision to lay off a beloved teacher.

Telia Waldo, a senior at the time, started a petition to show student support for Betsy Benedith, who was an assistant principal at the high school and is now one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Waldo, 18, said that the petition, which had more than 250 signatures, accomplished nothing.

“I’m happy about the lawsuit,” said Waldo, who graduated in June and now studies music at Five Towns College. “I feel like … Malverne as a district is getting what it deserves because there’s too many undercover racists in this district and it’s time to get rid of them.”

That is what Janet Morgan, a retired Malverne teacher who sued the district for racial discrimination in 1992, has been saying for more than two decades. “Malverne has continued to be what it has always been: racist,” Morgan, who now lives in Georgia, told the Herald. “It’s a hopeless situation.”

The district suspended Morgan in 1988 after she assigned her eighth-grade social studies class an essay about the dismissal of a football commentator from his job after he made racial comments about black athletes, and failed to turn over her grade book when ordered. She sued the district, which eventually settled and allowed her to return in a different position. Morgan wrote and published a book, titled “At the End of the Bus Ride: A Teacher’s Tale,” about her experiences at Malverne and other school districts where she had taught.

Bayley has also said that racist beliefs have “permeated the school system” for too long and that it was only a matter of time before someone spoke up. “It was bound to happen sooner or later,” she told the Herald. “Somebody was going to be tired enough of the nonsense to stand up, and that’s what happened. … These three took matters into their own hands and said, ‘Enough is enough.’”

Bayley, Morgan and Waldo insist that discrimination has been present and tangible, but, according to Berry, they should concede that it is neither representative of the district nor indicative of widespread discontent among parents, teachers or students. “It’s the same people that are pulling the racial card,” she said. “Sometimes they get carried away with the racial thing.”

Assertions that racism exists in the district are in and of themselves the problem, according to several people who shared comments on the Herald’s online story about the lawsuit. “This is EXACTLY the reason that a large number of white parents in the district would prefer to send their children to private schools,” wrote one. “The racial garbage that the Lakeview community brings to the schools interferes with providing children with a good, solid, learning environment.”

Another commenter wrote that “reverse discrimination” is the reason more than 700 Malverne children, particularly of high school age, attend private schools. She went on to say that Benedith and her fellow plaintiffs, Sherwyn Besson and Kenneth Smith, “are just playing victim to make a quick buck off the taxpayer’s back.”

Instead of bickering over whose racism is worse, people should let the issue alone altogether, according to Berry, who said that she and many others in the district work hard to highlight the achievements of students and the progress of the district. Still, those things are often overshadowed by controversy and criticism.

“I think about 180 kids made high honor roll and honor roll at the middle school. That’s amazing,” Berry said. “But we don’t see that. These kids are working so hard to get where they want to get, but we don’t hear about that.”

Malverne schools Superintendent Dr. James Hunderfund, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with the district itself, high school Principal James Brown and two other administrators, said the suit is “without merit,” but would not comment further.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Steven Morelli, said his clients want to send a message to the district and have their case tried before a jury.

“I don’t care,” Berry said. “I don’t need to hear it. My kids don’t need to hear it. … Let’s remember the good things that Malverne does. Why do we always have to hear the negative?”