Jeena Lee-Walker claims administrators at the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry in Manhattan told her not to present lessons about the notorious case out of fear that they would “rile up” black students, according to the New York Daily News newspaper.
Her recently filed lawsuit in the case seeks unspecified damages from the New York City Department of Education, the newspaper said.
Lee-Walker says in her lawsuit that she changed her lesson plans in response to concerns of administrators at the Upper West Side high school that lessons about the so-called Central Park Five would infuriate minority students and result in “little riots” at the school.
Yet administrators still accused her of insubordination and subjected her to poor performance reviews for 18 months before firing her, the suit says.
“I felt abandoned and mistreated,” Lee-Walker said of her treatment by the district.
“I think a lot of teachers in the system feel the same way,” she said.
The five minority students wrongfully accused in the case served a decade or more in prison before being exonerated when someone else came forward to take responsibility for the Central Park attack in 2002.
The students settled with the city for tens of millions of dollars in damages last year.
But Lee-Walker, who became a victim’s rights advocate after six years in education, insists that her First Amendment rights were violated as were her rights under the teacher’s union contract.
“I was stunned” by the school district’s actions, she told the Daily News. “I was kind of like, the facts are the facts. This is what happened. These boys went to jail and lost 14, 18 years of their lives. How can you say that in a more balanced way?”
The city’s law department has declined to comment on the litigation, the newspaper said.
