O’DWYER & BERNSTIEN, LLP

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                   February 19th, 2016

Contact: Brian O’Dwyer (917)-376-4461 or CJ Warnke (732)-284-0888

COMPLAINT FILED TO NYC HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION REGARDING SCHOOL CONFERENCES ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Brian O’Dwyer, senior partner at O’Dwyer & Bernstein, LLP, announced today that the firm filed, on behalf of Frank J. Schorn a teacher in the public schools of New York, a charge at the New York City Human Rights Commission alleging that the New York City Department of Education had violated Schorn’s civil rights by scheduling parent teacher conferences on St. Patrick’s Day of 2016. Schorn and other Irish-American teachers in the New York City school system are obligated by contract to participate in parent teacher conferences. As a result of this scheduling, Irish-American teachers have been denied the opportunity to participate in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade in particular. The parade has been found by the United States Courts to be not only a celebration of Irish heritage but a religious activity celebrating the feast day of the patron saint of the Archdiocese of New York, St. Patrick.

The complaint alleges that the Department of Education has not complied with the Human Rights Law of the City of New York in that despite repeated requests by members of the Irish caucus of the New York City Council, the Department of Education has not changed the date for parent teacher conferences. The scheduling of the conferences on the most sacred day for Irish-Americans not only interferes with the religious observance of the many Irish-American school teachers and administrators employed by the Department of Education, it similarly interferes with the rights of the parents of children enrolled in the New York City school system and that they also must make a choice between discussing their child’s scholastic progress or observing a religious feast day.

“This year the Mayor instituted three new school holidays,” said Dr. O’Dwyer, who serves as Chair of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center. “One observing the Lunar New Year and the others recognizing Muslim religious holidays. We are not asking that the Mayor accommodate New York’s oldest immigrant community by declaring a school holiday. We are instead asking that the Department of Education make a minor change to its schedule so that the religious observance of thousands of teachers and parents who celebrate the feast day of St. Patrick be recognized and honored. In a city which celebrates its diversity and its accommodation for people of all religious and ethnic identities, it is particularly upsetting that the Department of Education has so blithely ignored the legitimate religious and ethnic expressions of Irish-American New Yorkers.”

“The insensitive scheduling of parent teacher meetings on March 17th has put me in an untenable position of choosing between my ethnic and religious heritage and my duty to help my students,” said Frank Schorn, who serves as Vice Chair of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center. “I foresee being prevented from attending any Irish cultural events on March 17th.”