District says ex-principal’s claims lack evidence
Daniel Glenn, the former principal of South Avenue Elementary School in Beacon, failed to provide evidence that racial discrimination played a role in his termination, school district attorneys wrote last week in a response to Glenn’s lawsuit. The district suggested that the case should be dismissed.
Glenn, who is Black, was hired at South Avenue in August 2021 and terminated in June 2023. He filed a federal lawsuit in April alleging “disparate treatment and a hostile work environment due to his race” and asked to be returned to his job with back pay and unspecified damages.
The district’s response, filed June 11, argues that the allegations lack enough support to “plausibly claim” that Glenn’s dismissal was racially motivated.
For example, it said, although Glenn was the only Black male principal in the district, “there are no allegations that plaintiff was treated differently than similarly situated non-African American employees.” In addition, the district said, Glenn alleged that his time in Beacon “was permeated with racial discrimination” and that white co-workers “leveraged their race” to avoid accountability, but, without specific evidence, “such conclusory allegations are insufficient,” the district said.
In his lawsuit, Glenn highlighted two incidents in 2023 that he portrayed as retaliation for his charges of discrimination: an allegation that he made an inappropriate comment to a female teacher who had recently returned to work after having a child and a charge that he did not adequately address a student complaint.
The district, noting that Glenn’s lawsuit does not mention the female teacher’s race, said the allegation that Superintendent Matt Landahl believed only the accounts of “unidentified teachers and students whose racial identities are not named is simply insufficient to allege discriminatory intent.”
Glenn taught for 19 years in Newburgh and was an assistant principal for three years in New Paltz before coming to Beacon.
The district said that, if Glenn does not amend his complaint to include support for his allegations, it would ask Judge Kenneth Karas to schedule a conference to discuss dismissing the case.
