A white Long Island, New York public school teacher accused of displaying a racially offensive image in her classroom, causing a national uproar and prompting calls for the firing of anyone involved, says she was cleared of all wrongdoing—but claims vengeful Black colleagues and school district officials have nevertheless continued to persecute her “because of her race.”
The photo, which was part of a larger display featuring teachers and students, showed a pair of hangman’s nooses under a caption reading, “back to school necklaces.” The image also featured the words “Ha Ha” and “#YES,” as well as a pink smiley face. The school district blamed the collage on an “isolated group of teachers,” and said “appropriate action” had been taken.
“A clear message needs to be sent that there is simply no place in our schools and in our society for this type of racist, hateful and insensitive imagery,” Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen said in a statement following the incident. Former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton weighed in on social media, calling the pictures “racist and sickening.” Pastor Arthur Mackey Jr. of nearby Mount Sinai Baptist Church was sent a photo of the collage. And while the suicide component to the images was itself objectionable, as Mackey told CBS News at the time, the noose images were “pure, outright, discrimination whether they realize it or not.”
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Three teachers were suspended; two without tenure were later terminated. None of their names were ever publicly released.
Now, in a bombshell lawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast, longtime social studies teacher Nancy Jones Doering has revealed herself as one of the accused. In the lawsuit, Doering, 48, says a hearing officer in October 2022 exonerated her of all charges—including interfering with the investigation by concealing evidence—and ordered her reinstated. Yet, Jones Doering not only claims she has been kept away entirely from students, her suit says she lives “in constant anxiety, stress and daily fear to herself and her family,” thanks to ongoing “false, fabricated and uncorroborated accusations and claims” that she is a “white supremac[ist].”
Calls on Monday from The Daily Beast to Jones Doering’s cell phone went straight to voicemail. She later texted back, confirming it was her and asking what the inquiry was all about. But Jones Doering abruptly stopped responding once The Daily Beast requested comment on her lawsuit over the noose collage.
Jones Doering’s attorney, Rudy Dermesropian, did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.
The entire matter stems from a simple misunderstanding, according to Jones Doering’s lawsuit, which notes that the school district “is primarily composed of Black and African American members, while Claimant is White.”
On Feb. 6, 2019, the Roosevelt Union Free School District got word of “an offensive and racially infused collage… on display” in an unnamed teacher’s classroom—which Jones Doering insists was not hers—at Roosevelt Middle School, the lawsuit states. Administrators from the school district visited “that other teacher's classroom, [and] inspected the collage, but failed to remove it or instruct that teacher from removing it,” the lawsuit contends.
The next day, Jones Doering “went into that other classroom to leave lesson plans for the students and saw the collage,” the suit goes on. “When Plaintiff saw that collage, she noticed the offensive nature of its content, and removed it from the classroom so that students and staff members are [sic] not exposed to it.”
According to Jones Doering, she then took the collage “back into her classroom and placed it in a locked cabinet.”
On Feb. 8, 2019, the other teacher told Jones Doering, who was the teachers’ union rep at Roosevelt Middle School—the alma mater of legendary Public Enemy frontman Chuck D—that she had been summoned to a meeting with Human Resources, and asked her to accompany her to the meeting, the lawsuit states. There, both the other teacher and Jones Doering were given letters of suspension, according to the lawsuit, which describes Jones Doering as having been “[s]hocked of [sic] this turn of events.”
Jones Doering was formally accused of three things: displaying the noose collage in her classroom, interfering with an investigation by removing the collage and placing it in her closet, and bringing “negative attention to the school,” according to the suit. It says the backlash was immediate, and “defamatory and slanderous comments and accusations” about Jones Doering flooded social media, according to the lawsuit.
In her suit, Jones Doering insists she “neither created nor displayed any racist collage or image in her classroom, nor did she assist anyone in doing so, and Defendants were very much aware of that since they knew who created the collage and who displayed it, but yet maliciously and intentionally publically made false statements about [her].”
As a tenured teacher, Jones Doering was entitled to a so-called 3020a hearing, which requires the school district to prove “just cause” before terminating someone. The proceedings lasted 3.5 years, and concluded with a presentation to New York State’s Teacher Tenure Hearing Unit, where the school district “presented their best and strongest evidence and witnesses,” according to the lawsuit.
“The Hearing Officer issued an Opinion and Decision on October 14, 2022 exonerating [Jones Doering] of all Charges and accusations,” it says, “dismissing all such Charges and specifications in their entirety, and ordered Defendants to immediately reinstate [her] to her position as a social studies teacher at the Roosevelt Middle School.”
However, according to Jones Doering’s suit, the school district “ignored such orders.” When she refused to resign, the district removed her from her classroom and “forced her into an isolated small office, without any windows, without any ability to lock her door for safety reasons, defamed and publicly shamed her, and stripped her of all her duties and responsibilities.” The lawsuit states that the district replaced her in the classroom with a new social studies teacher who is Black.
“Defendants have targeted [Jones Doering] because of her race and have even invited and encouraged members of the community, including Reverend Mackey, to publicly attack, defame, shame and harass [her], the lawsuit alleges, noting that no Black teachers were “publicly defamed and had her reputation and name destroyed based on such false accusations.”
(Mackey, who has continued to call for Jones Doering to be fired but no longer refers to her by name on social media—and appears to have deleted those posts that did, for reasons unknown—did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.)
“Even [Jones Doering’s] car was vandalized in the parking lot on school property and no action was taken by Defendants to either investigate this attack or to take appropriate measures to ensure [her] safety,” the suit claims. “On January 12, 2023, members of the School District were also seen writing racist comments against [Jones Doering] on a white board in an open area stating, ‘white supremacy is a hell of a drug.’”
Jones Doering says in her suit that she immediately reported the white board incident to HR, and last June filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, Jones Doering alleges nothing has been done “to ensure [she] is not subjected to similar and ongoing discrimination and harassment.”
“In fact, since the School District initiated its purported investigation, different teachers at the school have been heard by [Jones Doering] adversely referring to [her] and speaking to her so as to constantly harass and intimate [sic] her,” the lawsuit states.
These “other employees who are Black/African American” were not “terminated, suspended, reprimanded, charged with any violation, or had their duties and responsibilities stripped away,” as hers were, Jones Doering’s suit argues.
It says her “entire career, reputation and profession was [sic] permanently damaged and forever adversely stained,” thanks to the school district’s “actions, inactions and discriminatory and retaliatory agenda against her.” The suit adds claims that she has suffered financial harm, damage to her reputation, and sustained “serious emotional and psychological injuries” for which she’s been seeing a psychologist since Jan. 2023.
Taken together, the suit claims, Jones Doering has spent the past five years “living in constant anxiety, stress and daily fear to herself and her family.”
Jones Doering’s suit accuses the school district, the Roosevelt Board of Education, and at least 10 unidentified individuals of racial discrimination, retaliation, promoting a hostile work environment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision, and defamation for “falsely portray[ing]... [Jones Doering] as a racist teacher in a community that is mostly composed of Black/African American members and who allegedly displays ‘nooses’ in her classroom in front of students.”
She is demanding a jury trial and unspecified compensatory, prospective, exemplary and punitive damages, lost compensation, bonuses, and fringe benefits, along with a court order enjoining the school district from “further discrimination, harassment and retaliation.”
Roosevelt Union Free School District officials did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. The district has not yet filed a formal response to Jones Doering’s complaint.
