A teacher who claims she was fired from Hunterdon Central Regional High School because of her race and religion is suing the district, school board, school officials and Hunterdon County in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Sireen Hashem, an Arab and Palestinian Muslim, claims she was prevented from discussing topics covered by her colleagues and teaching the way her colleagues taught, and was retaliated against for questioning why she was being treated differently.
The suit was filed Monday in federal District Court in Newark. It cites Hunterdon County, the Hunterdon Central Regional Board of Education, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Superintendent Christina Steffner, Principal Suzanne Cooley, and two teachers who supervised her, Robert Zywicki and Rebecca Lucas.
Attorney Omar Mohammedi, who will be representing Hashem along with attorney Clifford Mulqueen, said they “will seek justice for her to the extent possible.
“She was treated poorly and discriminated against,” Mohammedi said. “It’s unfortunate that a student who wrote something about her defaming her was not suspended. She was let go for something she didn’t do.”
Steffner released a statement about the lawsuit late Thursday afternoon.
“Neither the district nor I have been served with a complaint, but I have read some of Ms. Hashem’s allegations against me in the media,” her statement says. “I respect the personnel confidentiality rights of all employees, and it would be inappropriate for me to publicly comment about job performance or personnel matters.
“However, I want to very clearly state that Ms. Hashem’s allegations against me are untrue. I have never made a personnel decision based on any improper purpose. The statements attributed to me are factually wrong, and may even be defamatory. It is unfortunate that the district and I will have to defend this case, but will do so vigorously, so that the real facts may be presented in court. After an appropriate review of the allegations, further comments may be provided.”
Former and current Hunterdon Central Regional High School students have been reacting on social media to Hashem’s termination.
The lawsuit makes the following claims:
Hashem was a student teacher at Central from January to May 2013, and was hired that summer to start teaching U.S. History full-time in September 2013, in the Social Studies department.
Shortly after she started and as part of her training, on Oct. 13, Hashem observed a U.S. History class taught by a colleague, Lindsay Warren, a non-Arab, non-Palestinian, non-Muslim Caucasian. Warren showed a video featuring Malala Yousafzai, a young girl who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban following her advocacy of education for girls. At Warren’s suggestion, Hashem used the same video in her U.S. History class later that day.
Hashem claims she was called to a meeting with her supervisor Zywicki on Oct. 24, after the principal had received a complaint from a student’s parent about Hashem’s use of the video. “Zywicki told plaintiff that she could not teach current events in the same manner as her non-Arab, non-Palestinian and non-Muslim colleagues,” the suit states.
Several incidents are cited in which Hashem claims she was called to task for what and how she was teaching: her participation in an elective class in which a book, “Lemon Tree,” was discussed; her use of a document-based-question commonly used by teachers throughout the U.S., asking students to compare the actions of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry to the actions of Osama bin Laden on Sept. 11, 2001.
In a meeting following a parent’s complaint about the Osama bin Laden question, “Cooley told Plaintiff that she should not mention Islam or the Middle East in her class,” the suit states, adding that Cooley “further stated that plaintiff should not bring her culture, life experience or background into the classroom.”
In early September 2014, a student posted allegations on Facebook that Hashem’s brother was a terrorist, her suit claims, adding that the student also posted that Hashem was anti-Israel and “attempting to instill anti-Semitic views in students and warned that plaintiff may hurt students who did not agree with her.”
She was allegedly summoned to Cooley’s office and confronted by Cooley and Steffner, who “accused her of not sticking to the curriculum, questioned her about her teaching and how it related to the common core, accused her of discriminating against Jewish students, and also questioned her about her place of birth, her family, and her personal life,” the suit states.
On Sept. 11, 2014, Hashem was called to a meeting with Steffner, the suit says. “Steffner told Plaintiff that she caused trouble because she was Palestinian since the day she started working at the high school, making reference to the Malala Yusufzai video,” the suit claims. “When plaintiff countered that Lindsay Wagner used the same video and it was not a problem, defendant Steffner slammed her hand on the table and said ‘you are not Lindsay.’”
Hashem was notified by her supervisor Lucas on April 14, 2015, that she was “being let go,” the suit states. She received written notice from Steffner on April 21, 2015, that her contract would not be renewed.
The suit seeks relief for nine claims: Employment discrimination, disparate treatment, disparate impact, retaliation, conspiracy to discriminate, violation of her civil rights under the First Amendment, violation of her freedom of speech, denial of equal protection, and discriminatory discharge.
It seeks lost wages, compensatory damages for mental anguish and injury to Hashem’s livelihood, double damages for intentional discrimination, and unspecified punitive damages.