Ex-Principal Laura Roblee.
A city-hired attorney cited concerns about whether a principal’s dishonesty about her repeated use of the “n word” with subordinates rendered her “fit” to “serve in any capacity” in New Haven’s public schools.
The attorney advised New Haven’s schools administration that they had legal grounds to fire the principal — and advised requiring her to accept a demotion or pay cut.
The attorney, Tom Mooney of the firm Shipman & Goodwin, offered that counsel to the schools administration in a May 18 memo. (Read the memo here.)
Schools Superintendent Iline Tracey released the memo late Tuesday in response to demands for more transparency about the handling of the case of former Brennan Rogers Principal Laura Roblee. The release was one of several new developments in the case Tuesday, including calls by local ministers for Roblee’s firing and a mayoral campaign press conference centered on the mayor’s actions in the affair.
Acting on attorney Mooney’s advice, the schools offered Roblee a demotion to assistant principal at another school (since changed to an unspecific central office position). Roblee signed a letter agreeing to the reassignment on June 9. Tracey released that letter Tuesday, as well. The school board subsequently voted to approve the transfer by a 4 – 3 vote, but didn’t release details about the incidents for a week, after public demands for more information.
Mooney’s letter, addressed to school board-assigned city attorney John Gesmonde, begins by disagreeing with an unspecified suggestion that Roblee be allowed to maintain her current salary through an involuntary transfer.
“Ms. Roblee used a racial epithet on several occasions” and “was untruthful in recounting the circumstances of her inappropriate actions,” Mooney wrote in the letter (reproduced above). “Ms. Roblee sought to excuse her use of the epithet as an ‘academic discussion’ with teachers about the training in which she and they participated. However, the facts as found are that Ms. Roblee was upset by the use of the words ‘white’ and ‘whiteness’ and that she sought out subordinate teachers to express her frustrations with that training. In expressing that frustration, Ms. Roblee used an intolerable racial epithet more than once.”
The letter notes that the teachers Roblee sought out to complain to were white. That “potentially exacerbated racial division” in the schools “by allying herself as a white principal with white teachers to complain about the training that they had received,” Mooney argued.
Then Roblee failed to “express remorse over her poor judgement” when her assistant principal confronted her about the incident, Mooney wrote. “Rather, she became agitated and used the racial epithet again and demanded to know who had reported her.”
Emily Hays Photo
Karen DuBois-Walton at Tuesday presser: Elicker didn’t do homework.
The letter further notes the school administration’s concern that Roblee’s “failure to be honest” or “take responsibility … has cast doubt on her fitness to serve in any capacity in the New Haven Public Schools.”
Mooney concluded by recommending offering Roblee the transfer and pay cut — and “initiating proceedings” under state General Statue 10 – 151 to fire her if not.
Roblee took the offer.
The Rev. Steven Cousin, one of the ministers calling for the principal’s firing, said Tuesday evening that the newly released letter raises questions: “Why are we keeping her in her position if our own attorney says she is not fit? Why are we trying so hard to keep her? And why wasn’t this memo attached to full report” issued a day earlier?
In releasing the documents Tuesday evening, Tracey said other advice and legal discussions took place through conversation, not written documents.
Roblee has not spoken publicly about the matter. She expressed regret in a letter read aloud Monday at a press conference by Superintendent Iline Tracey. Roblee said she has been reading the book White Fragility as part of her response to the incident.
DuBois-Walton Slams Elicker’s Role
Paul Bass Photo
Elicker: “Pointing fingers” isn’t helpful.
Earlier Tuesday, mayoral candidate Karen DuBois-Walton held a press conference outside City Hall to respond to the investigatory report into Roblee’s use of the “n word.”
DuBois-Walton, who’s challenging Mayor Justin Elicker Elicker for the Democratic mayoral nomination, argued that Elicker did not ask for enough information before his vote to demote Roblee.
The press conference came the day after the Board of Education released the report.
“How could this mayor have not asked to see the report before rubber-stamping this decision? How could he not have demanded a deeper investigation? And knowing all that we know now, how can he still not? Did he have no interest in what was actually happening in his city? What else is he not looking into?” DuBois-Walton asked.
Elicker responded afterwards that the Board of Education did get all the details about the incident in a two-hour, closed-door executive session before the vote to demote the principal, a vote in which he took part as a board member.
“Pointing fingers at each other isn’t going to help us address these challenging issues. The board was briefed in executive session by the superintendent and our attorney, and then four board members including me voted to accept Dr Tracey’s recommendation to hold the employee accountable,” Elicker said.
“We hired a superintendent to manage the district. My opponent did not raise any concerns for months prior to the board meeting and now every day she criticizes.”
Elicker has also come under criticism for a campaign fundraising letter he sent citing his actions in this incident as a reason for sending him money.
New Haven Public Schools released the executive summary of the investigation on Monday — one week after four Board of Education members, including Elicker, voted to demote Laura Roblee to assistant principal. Elicker claimed he helped push for the release of the report.
The report shows that Roblee used the full “n‑word” in a conversation with two teachers in March to explain how she felt about the term “whiteness” in an anti-racism workshop. In an apology letter released at the same time as the report, Roblee describes the incident as a one-time event that she is horrified by.
An open letter from over 30 Brennan-Rogers School staff members argues that the incident is part of a pattern of behavior by the principal. These staff members said that the district’s investigation consisted of only a few emails and that the district did not look into this larger pattern.
DuBois-Walton pointed to this staff letter as evidence that Elicker should have both asked for written documentation before his vote and that the investigation itself was inadequate.
“The mayor asks us to trust him, but when we learn the details, we see he hasn’t done his homework,” DuBois-Walton said. “This city deserves a leader that has worked on equity for decades, who will make the right decision the first time.”
DuBois-Walton highlighted stories of students and staff members upset by the rumors that have swirled around the West Rock-based, K‑12 school in the last few months. A new student to in-person school reportedly pointed to a picture of Roblee and asked who she was. Another responded that she was the principal who had called them the “n‑word.”
She suggested that Brennan-Rogers students and families should get extra mental health resources during the summer. DuBois-Walton is a trained clinical psychologist who helped pair clinicians with police officers to help children work through trauma.
The district is ramping up fitness and “fun” activities over the summer, with the help of federal coronavirus relief dollars, to help children and families blow off steam from a rough year of mostly remote classes. In addition, Superintendent Iline Tracey promised on Monday to bring in a third-party to help investigate the harm Brennan-Rogers staffers described and figure out how to address it.
DuBois-Walton has criticized the mayor’s response to the “n‑word” incident repeatedly over the past week. Other consistent critics have been Black Lives Matter New Haven, the dissenting members of the school board, the Greater New Haven Clergy Association and West Rock Alder Honda Smith.
New Haven Public School Advocates joined that chorus on Monday with a set of demands that built on those released by Black Lives Matter New Haven. In addition to BLM’s suggestion that the district build out ways for staff and families to report incidents like this, the Advocates asked that the district fire Roblee and hold listening sessions at Brennan-Rogers Magnet School.
Jackson-McArthur Addresses Previous Incident
In debate over the incident, defenders of the school board’s decision have criticized board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur for opposing it — citing a remark she made during a March 8 board meeting.
She made the remark in response to a comment that the board’s then-chief financial officer, Phil Penn, wrote in the chat section of the Zoom meeting.
“Fair point,” Penn wrote in the chat box in reference to a discussion about the budget. “And it’s really the Commissioner at OPM that’s gone off the reservation on how Federal grants work.”
Jackson-McArthur, who identifies as Afro-Indigenuous, responded to the “reservation remark” in the chat: “You have got to be kidding me with that slur!!!! I am a Nipmuc Woman. Proud of my people. What do you mean gone off the reservation!!!!! im done …”
Then, aloud, Jackson-McArthur stated that Penn “might as well have called me” the n‑word.
This past week, that final remark sparked some people to ask how that’s different from a white principal using the word with underlings in a work setting. Superintendent Iline Tracey first made the comparison in public at the Board of Education’s meeting on Roblee’s demotion. The board erupted and took a five-minute break. Tracey apologized when she returned for offending Jackson-McArthur and said she did not mean the comparison to be offensive.
Jackson-McArthur addressed that criticism Tuesday. She noted that the state official Penn was criticizing, the head of the state Office of Policy and Management, is also Black. She also spoke of not receiving support when raising concern about the “reservation” remark.
“On March 8th, during our regular board meeting, the former CFO made an indigenous slur,” Jackson-McArthur stated.
“Nobody recognized nor denounced the slur, nor the trauma I experienced. I had to decry an offense. I was tearful in the meeting and also disgusted that the board leadership, the mayor, nor the superintendent acted in a way to protect me.
“I let them know that the slur was just as offensive as had the former CFO called me the N‑word…and I said it. For those comparing my utterance to the usage by a former principal, who used it in a racist manner, your comparison holds no water, and you are continuing the institutional racism that I fight against every single day. If I offended you by letting everyone know who cares to listen, that I was wounded by that slur just as I would have been had he called me the N‑word, then maybe you should revisit your history of how the N‑word was derived and has been used in white supremacy.”