Los Angeles Unified has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit filed by a longtime substitute teacher who alleged she was discriminated against because she is white when she was fired in 2024 after being falsely accused of making a racially insensitive remark to a Black student and not given the appropriate chances to respond.
An attorney for plaintiff Dorene Shapiro filed court papers on Thursday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Armen Tamzarian notifying him of a “conditional” resolution in the case and that a request for dismissal will be filed by Aug. 20. No terms were divulged, and it was not immediately clear if the settlement is subject to approval by the Board of Education.
According to her suit filed March 13, Shapiro, now 80, was hired as a substitute teacher in 1967 and has been assigned primarily to Pomelo Charter Elementary, Wilbur Elementary and Superior Elementary Schools as well as Serrania Charter for Enriched Studies in Woodland Hills.
In April 2024, the regular Serrania fourth grade classroom teacher left an assignment for Shapiro to give students that consisted of a 10-minute, four-sentence journal entry, “What type of animal would you like to be?”
A month later, the Serrania principal told Shapiro that a complaint was filed on behalf of a Black student contending that Shapiro had asked the boy, “Why don’t you write about being a monkey?” when he said he wanted to be a tiger during the April assignment, the suit states.
Shapiro, accused by the district of discrimination, denied making the monkey remark, the suit states. But last June, the LAUSD concluded that Shapiro, without asking the plaintiff what she actually said or did not utter, had violated the district’s code of conduct with students, the suit states.
The LAUSD denied Shapiro’s appeal in September, again without speaking to the plaintiff, the suit stated. Shapiro developed emotional, mental and physical distress and also suffered lost income due to losing her job, the suit further stated.
