DEARBORN — Dearborn Public Schools has fired one of two former Fordson teachers suing the district for religious discrimination and harassment.
Bryan Purcell was terminated after he failed to show up for a personnel hearing on May 23. Details of why the math teacher was fired are protected under privacy laws, and public school board records do not give any clues, although minutes from the public portion of the meeting include an e-mail Purcell submitted to the board.
In the e-mail, he called the allegations a “mountain of fiction” and continued to assert that since Imad Fadlallah became principal at Fordson High School in 2005, FHS administrators have systematically tried to force non-Arab and non-Muslim faculty out of the school.
“This a pattern of harassment and the hostile work environment he created has continued under Youssef Mosallam, and in fact, the harassment has been stepped up,” Purcell said in the email.
Fadlallah retired last summer and was replaced by Mosallam as principal.
Purcell’s attorney, Debbie Schlussel, said Purcell would fight his dismissal under the state’s teacher Tenure Act.
“It is obvious that the dismissal is pretextual, discriminatory, and retaliatory, and we intend to fight it all the way,” Schlussel said via email.
Schlussel, an ultra conservative commentator who calls the city “Dearbornistan” on her website, also said the suit against the district is ongoing. She declined in the email to provide additional comment because the case is still pending in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Schlussel filed the suit in September on behalf of Purcell and Georgene Stergalas, a marketing teacher. Both the Fordson High School teachers said school administrators had harassed them because they were neither Arab nor Muslim.
Both claimed in the suit that administrators tried to drive them out by reassigning them to less desirable courses, putting troublemaking students in their rooms, and scheduling them to teach two classes at the same time in different areas of the building, among several other allegations.
When the suit was filed, both teachers had taken medical leave because of the stress caused by the situation. Purcell had taught in Dearborn for 10 years and Stergalas for 16.
Stergalas is now teaching at Dearborn High, said Brian Mustonen, Dearborn Public School’s communications coordinator. He confirmed the suit is still making its way through the courts.
School administrators have said since the beginning that the suit has no merit. Previous claims against Fadlallah had been unsubstantiated, they noted.
However, the suit was similar to one filed in 2009 by ousted wrestling coach Gerald Marszalek. He claimed he was forced out of his coaching job after 35 years because Fadlallah did not like that a volunteer assistant wrestling coach was doing Christian outreach work outside of school.
That suit was eventually settled out of court, the district said.
From: http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2011/07/12/news/doc4e1c8aabbf25e615913007.txt?viewmode=fullstory
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