Upper Darby superintendent recommends firing of trainer after racist tirade

The superintendent of the Upper Darby School District is recommending the firing of the instructor captured on video last week using a racist slur towards a parent after a minor car coincidence in a school car parking zone.

“My recommendation to the board is for termination,” Superintendent Daniel McGarry said in a announcement Tuesday.

But, McGarry said, the teacher has rights and “there’s a criminal system we ought to follow.” He stated the teacher may want to select to resign, visit arbitration, or request a formal listening to earlier than the school board.

District spokesperson Aaronda Beauford said Wednesday that “a decision approximately whether or not to terminate may want to arise as early as” subsequent Tuesday, if the school board calls a special meeting, “or as late as” the board’s often scheduled meeting Nov. 12.

The incident quickly blew up on social media after determine Rasheed Noel posted a video on Facebook final Thursday of a heated trade with Drexel Hill Middle School teacher Renee Greeley after a fender bender inside the college’s parking lot that morning.

Noel responds: “It’s due to the fact I’m young and I’m black is the reason why you would say that.”

After sarcastically agreeing with Noel, Greeley says: “Always trying to milk the gadget. And you see me, a white lady, so you think I were given cash.”

She later calls Noel the N-phrase.

Greeley could not be reached for remark Wednesday. A trainer of computer tech and other topics, Greeley has been with the district considering 2008, Beauford stated.

She changed into located on unpaid administrative leave closing week.

Labor regulation experts stated the phrases of the district’s contract with its instructors should affect Greeley’s employment final results.

“If this is an extended-time period instructor whose overall performance has been stellar through the years, and she or he just lost it … I’m never certain that a firing would be upheld,” said Deborah Willig, a attorney who has represented teachers and public-college employees. “An arbitrator has latitude to impose lesser area.”

Melanie Masciantonio, president of the Upper Darby Education Association, stated in an email that she couldn’t comment on a personnel remember.

Greeley had additionally been operating at the the front desk of the Community YMCA of Eastern Delaware County but lost the job after the parking-lot incident.

“We separated approaches along with her,” said Michael Ranck, the Community YMCA’s president and CEO. “The pronounced actions … were not in line with our mission and values at the Y,” and the agency’s expectations for its group of workers.

In his assertion, McGarry stated, “We do no longer condone or guide the remarks or moves of the trainer in query.” He said the district has been fielding calls from network individuals and nearby and countrywide media stores because the incident.

The Upper Darby School District enrolls 12,500 college students. Nearly half of are black; one sector are white; 15% are Asian; and the relaxation are Hispanic or multiracial.

“People are watching how we reply to this,” McGarry stated. “Our range is stunning, and it’s far a source of satisfaction. It is our strength and need to unify us, now not divide us.”