Former LI Teacher Alleges Racial Discrimination, Sues District

SYOSSET, NY — A former Syosset elementary school teacher has filed a lawsuit against the district alleging that she was discriminated against and forced out of her job because she is Black.

Alexis Robinson, a former second grade teacher at Robbins Lane Elementary School, filed the lawsuit against the district in May. She claims that Principal Thea Pallos and Assistant Superintendent Adele Bovard harassed her — the only Black teacher in the school — and forced her to resign at the end of her first year of teaching.

Robinson was hired by the Syosset School District in 2018 as a teaching assistant to another second grade teacher. At the end of that first year, she was made a full-time teacher at Robbins Lane for the 2019-20 school year.

According to the lawsuit, the first half of the year was going well, and she received good reviews when Pallos sat in on her classes. But in February, Robinson alleges that she was blindsided by a disciplinary meeting that she was told was a "standard mid-year check in." At that meeting, Robinson claimed that Pallos made accusations that went against everything her evaluations said for the beginning of the year, and also made false claims about things she didn't do.

Afterward, Robinson claims that Pallos would come by her classroom much more often in an attempt to disrupt her and make her feel intimidated. She also claims that Pallos set different standards for her than she did for other teachers of the same grade.

Robinson claims that the discrimination she faced was racially motivated.

According to the lawsuit, Melanie Spiegel, a fellow teacher at the school who was appointed by Pallos to be Robinson's mentor, was also discriminating against her. The lawsuit claims that Spiegel also lied to Pallos about Robinson's work performance.

After a month of discrimination, Robinson contacted her union representative. The union rep told her that she should have had representation at the meeting in February, and also told her of other rights as a union member that were violated, the lawsuit says. According to the lawsuit, the union rep told Robinson that Pallos was "toying" with her to intimidate her because she is Black.

In March, Bovard told Robinson that her contract would not be renewed at the end of the year and that she should resign, or else the Board of Education would have to fire her. The lawsuit alleges that this was in retaliation for Robinson meeting with her union representative.

When asked for reasons why she was being fired, the lawsuit claims that Bovard gave Robinson a list of false accusations that led to her termination.

In early April, Robinson submitted her letter of resignation. She wrote that she was resigning under "extreme duress" because "recent experiences in the workplace have become progressively adverse as a result of actions taken by the principal and other staff."

The lawsuit alleges that Bovard balked at this letter and demanded that Robinson submit a "vanilla" resignation letter, which she refused to do. The Board of Education accepted her original letter.

Robinson is seeking $3 million from the district, alleging that she was harassed and discriminated against because of her race.