Judge Dismisses Ex-Wayland School Official's Lawsuit Against Omar Easy

WAYLAND, MA — A Middlesex Superior Court Judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit against former superintendent Omar Easy brought by Wayland's former student services director.

Richard Whitehead, who is now Lincoln-Sudbury High School's student services director, sued Easy and the Wayland School Committee last June, claiming Easy had defamed him in a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination complaint Easy filed in February 2023.

Easy's MCAD filing was a breach of Whitehead's 2022 separation agreement, which contained a non-disparagement clause, the lawsuit claimed. In a March 19 ruling, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Adam Sisitsky said that Easy had the right to petition MCAD, and the portions that mentioned Whitehead were directly related to larger allegations of racial discrimination Easy had made. Easy had sought to be dismissed from the lawsuit under the state's anit-SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) law.

According to Sisitsky's ruling, the clash between Whitehead and Easy stemmed from a September 2021 incident involving Claypit Hill Elementary Assistant Principal Tulani Husband. She told Easy that Whitehead had "questioned her knowledge and expertise, and undermined her authority, in front of the students, teachers, and staff." Husband, the only Black building administrator in Wayland at the time, said she felt Whitehead's treatment of her might be due to "his racial bias against me as a Black woman," according to court records.

Easy spoke to Whitehead about the incident, and asked Whitehead to notify him first if he needed to visit Husband's school. Several months later, Whitehead emailed Easy and white administrators about a planned visit to Claypit Hill, which Easy interpreted as insubordination. That led to Easy issuing a notice of intent to terminate Whitehead in January 2022, and eventually Whitehead's negotiated exit from the district in June 2022.

The Wayland School Committee in February 2023 voted to place Easy on leave. He responded days later by filing his MCAD complaint, which he shared with local media. The complaint mentions Whitehead in multiple places:

• After Easy's hiring in 2021 as the district's first Black superintendent, Whitehead and former Happy Hollow principal Tricia O'Reilly refused to participate in a program Easy was hosting
• Whitehead's perceived racial bias against Husband
• A citizen berating Easy at a March 2022 school committee meeting over Whitehead's impending exit from the district

Easy's MCAD complaint described larger problems he encountered in his two years in Wayland, including being called a "thug" by a town employee and multiple instances of racist graffiti found at town schools.

According to Sisitsky's ruling, both the MCAD complaint and its leak to the press are allowed as part of Easy's effort to succeed in proving that he had been discriminated against in Wayland. Sisitsky also ruled that defamation was unlikely since the allegation in the MCAD complaint about Husband was based in fact.

"To the extent Whitehead asserts that he harbored no discriminatory intent against Husband, and/or did not commit discriminatory acts against her, it still does not render Husband's perceptions or her complaints about Whitehead a sham," the ruling said.

Although Easy was dismissed from Whitehead's suit, MCAD still has yet to rule on Easy's complaint, and the commission's public hearing schedule does not include a date for Easy in 2024. Earlier this month, Easy filed his own civil lawsuit against the district, accusing the town and former school committee members of fostering a discriminatory work environment. Wayland school officials were not immediately available for comment about whether the district is still party to Whitehead's lawsuit.

Wayland Patch has asked Whitehead's attorney for comment, and if he intends to appeal Sisitsky's ruling.