Lisa Mesi, the former principal of Philadelphia High School for Girls, has sued the Philadelphia School District, alleging racial discrimination. Mesi claims she was removed from her job because she is white and targeted after withholding diplomas from students due to their conduct at graduation.
Lisa Mesi claimed in the lawsuit she was removed from her job because she is white. In 2023, she withheld diplomas from Girls' High graduates because of their conduct at the ceremony.
News of the withheld diplomas spread quickly on social media, eventually drawing international attention. While some defended Girls’ High traditions and Mesi’s right to enforce them, others said the rule was insensitive to Black culture.Girls’ High, opened in 1848 as one of the nation’s first public high schools for women, had an “established rule and tradition” of requiring its graduates to process formally across the stage, without audience applause or shouting, according to the lawsuit.
Mesi, in the lawsuit, took issue with the district’s response, saying that it “threw under the bus” although she “had merely followed the same graduation ceremony rule that had been observed by her predecessors — with no adverse consequences”. “Many of the comments directed at Mesi were vulgar and obscene, with some falsely accusing Mesi of withholding the diplomas from the students because she is a racist,” the suit said. Eventually, police were informed of “threatening, crass and profane comments” about Mesi and members of her family; Mesi herself suffered from physical and emotional harm, the suit says.
Mesi spent the 2023-24 school year as “principal on special assignment,” working a desk job performing “simplistic and menial tasks not suitable for someone of her caliber and with her experience and qualifications, such as creating PowerPoint slides and Excel sheets, and preparing emails and briefings for an Associate Superintendent.” It was “humiliating and demeaning” for Mesi, the suit says.
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION SCHOOL DISTRICT PRINCIPAL PHILADELPHIA LAWSUIT
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