Judges question elite Manhattan private school’s handling of race controversy

[The Bobster]

Judges question elite Manhattan private school’s handling of race controversy

A pair of New York appellate judges criticized an elite Manhattan private school’s handling of a racially-charged controversy involving a teen student’s Instagram post during a Thursday…

nypost.com

Judges question elite Manhattan private school’s handling of race controversy​

By
Selim Algar


February 18, 2022 7:27pm
Updated

The Spence School was criticized by judges who said that they had mishandled a racially-charged case involving a 15-year-old girl. Matthew McDermott

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A pair of New York appellate judges criticized an elite Manhattan private school’s handling of a racially-charged controversy involving a teen student’s Instagram post during a Thursday hearing.
Judges Lizbeth Gonzalez and Sallie Manzinet said the Spence School — which counts Gwyneth Paltrow and Kerry Washington as graduates — failed to gather sufficient evidence before casting the girl, who was 15 at the time, as a racist because of an Instagram post.
“All of us as parents, you send your kids to school and you hope that administrators will treat all children fairly and that you don’t single out a 15-year-old,” Manzinet told Spence lawyer Michael Baughman. “There were ways to handle it. And this was not it.”
The girl’s parents, Adam and Michelle Parker, sued the posh bastion in 2019 after they claimed administrators misconstrued her post and never actually saw it before meting out punishment.
Spence held two school-wide assemblies on the matter and had their daughter, identified as D.P. in the suit, issue an apology that acknowledged the role of her whiteness in committing the act.
Associate Justice Lizbeth González accused The Spence School of singling out the 15-year-old girl and criticized them for disciplining her for an Instagram post that they hadn’t even read. nycourts.gov
The defamation and breach of contract suit was tossed by a trial court — but the two appellate judges scolded Spence on Thursday and are considering a revival of the case, which the Parkers want to see.
“I was outraged by reading this case because, quite frankly, I think that the Spence School has missed an opportunity for a teachable moment with these students and instead created this firestorm and this young girl gets labeled a racist,” Manzinet said.
Gonzalez said she was troubled by the assertion that Spence officials made a determination without having seen the post — and that they relied on a complaint from a student who also hadn’t viewed it.
“If any of us were to do that in our position as judges and simply relied on what people said to us — if that was allowed in a court of law at any hearing or any other place it would be thrown out,” Gonzalez said.
But Baughman pushed back on the accusations Thursday and argued that the dismissal should stand.
Associate Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels said she was “outraged” by the case and that the school missed a “teachable moment” by labeling the 15-year-old girl racist. nycourts.gov
Baughman said that the school had the right to address the fraught situation as it saw fit and that administrators tried to obtain the post before acting.
The attorney said rumors about the girl’s post had already spread throughout the school and that the assemblies were held to prevent the controversy from spiraling further.
The matter first flared after D.P. made a private Instagram post of a text message exchange with two friends about potential group Halloween costumes.
After one person suggested dressing up as math functions, D.P. said she didn’t want any “school” related outfits, according to the suit.
To “drive home her point,” she made a list of other undesirable costume trios, including: “Slaves, indigenous people, white settlers?” “Hitler, mussolini, stalin?” “Racism, sexism, anti-semitism?” “Sin, cos, tan?” and “American idealism, American intentions, the reality of America?” the suit states.
Word of the post eventually spilled into the Upper East Side school’s hallways.
Administrators later penalized D.P. with a half-day suspension — but the Parkers said the damage extended beyond that official punishment.
The girl’s parents Adam and Michelle Parker sued The Spence School in 2019 and said they had misconstrued her Instagram post which they hadn’t read. NO CREDIT
In their initial suit, the family said other students who posted more offensive material weren’t subjected to the same scrutiny.
“At bottom, this is a simple dispute over a half-day that D.P. spent at home to consider how her words may have affected others,” Baughman said in prior court documents.