The principal of an exclusive Manhattan private school has denounced a newly established anti-Semitism task force as a “joke” and nothing more than a “power play by Jewish families” to get him fired, according to a new lawsuit.
According to documents filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the College School’s top administrator, David Lowry, is accused of mocking a task force established by the school’s board of trustees to rid the Upper West Side campus of potential anti-Semitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
The allegations were made in a wide-ranging sex discrimination lawsuit filed earlier this week by task force director Anna Calero, who claims that Rowley forced her into the role because she is a woman, and then repeatedly disparaged her to male colleagues.
As part of his role as leader of the task force, Calero, who is also vice principal for academic affairs, said he was ordered to speak with families of students at the school, where tuition is $63,400 a year, and address issues that Lawrie “is not willing to address.”
“Mr. Rowley refused to participate in any capacity on the special committee, telling Dr. Calero that the special committee was a ‘joke,’ ‘useless,’ and nothing more than a ‘power play by Jewish families and New York City rabbis to remove Mr. Rowley from his position as principal,'” the filing states.
She claims that Rowley ordered her to meet her parents in part because, as a woman, she would be “more sympathetic,” according to the lawsuit. The Daily Beast reported.
Calero alleges that Lurie then sabotaged her efforts as leader of the task force by excluding her from key discussions related to anti-Semitism, including the case last November in which a teacher was placed on administrative leave after showing a biased video about the war between Israel and Hamas in class.
She claimed she was the last to find out that the teacher had been fired, even though as principal of academic affairs it was her job to oversee educators.
Yet after the task force’s response received overwhelming support from parents, Calero alleges that the elite school’s principal tried to punish her, including by telling a more junior male staff member that she was “undermining” him by meeting with a Jewish family.
According to court documents, Calero claims this led to her being “reprimanded” by two male colleagues about the work she was doing on the task force.
Separate from the special investigation committee’s allegations, Calero also alleged in her lawsuit that Rowley made derogatory comments about other female teachers and regularly ignored complaints of sex discrimination from her and others.
According to the lawsuit, in March, the principal described Calero as a “personnel issue” to a lower-ranking male colleague.
Calero said Rowley’s hostility made his position at the school “untenable” this spring, but that his “commitment to the students” meant he “persevered.”
She said in her lawsuit that she plans to resign from the university at the end of the academic year.
The lawsuit was filed just days after a long-awaited internal report into anti-Semitism at the Collegiate School acknowledged that some teachers blamed “rich and influential” Jewish parents for the rise in tensions at the school after the Oct. 7 attack.
The nine-page report, released May 17, came after more than 100 Jewish parents wrote letters to Raleigh’s principal and board chairman Jonathan K. Youngwood late last year, complaining that the school’s response to the Hamas bloodshed was “out of step with the times.”
Collegiate, one of New York’s most exclusive private high schools, boasts a roster of students including David Duchovny, rapper Lil Mab, and the famous Nepobabies. Jack Schlossberg Some of its most famous alumni include Cornelius Vanderbilt II.
Rowley did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
