Commack pays Black teacher $150G to settle racial harassment case

The Commack school district has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a Black teacher who said she faced racial harassment and intimidation on the job, according to documents obtained by Newsday.

An October agreement between English teacher Andrea Bryan and the district called for her to remain in her teaching assignment for the rest of the school year, then teach a mix of in-school and at-home periods next school year. She agreed to participate remotely in staff meetings and submit a resignation letter effective July 2027. 

Newsday obtained the settlement agreement through a Freedom of Information Law request.

Commack district spokeswoman Brenda Lentsch declined to answer questions about Bryan's employment status and pay but Bryan was listed as a Commack High School teacher teaching two English classes on her page on the district's website. A Newsday database of teacher salaries lists Andrea E. Kellman-Bryan at Commack, who was paid $145,274 in 2020-21.

A website for a Los Angeles-based online school, ICL Academy, listed Kellman-Bryan as a teacher until this week. That page was taken down after an inquiry from Newsday, and the school's staffers did not comment. 

Bryan, who was 46 and lived in Bay Shore when she filed the suit in federal court in Central Islip in 2018, said in filings that she had taught at the 5,719-student district for 17 years. During that time, she said, she was the only Black teacher.

Also named as defendants in the settlement are former Superintendent Donald James, principal for leadership and instruction Leslie Boritz, and associate principal Charles Schulz, the district’s former director of secondary English.

Bryan and district officials did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for Bryan and the district declined to comment.

The district maintained it acted “in good faith” and denied allegations of unlawful conduct, according to the agreement. In 2019, Lentsch told Newsday the "district takes any allegation of discrimination seriously and, as a matter of policy and practice, acts swiftly in response to any claim. Due to privacy requirements, the district cannot discuss the details of Ms. Bryan’s claims. We can say that all of them have been investigated and, to the extent appropriate, promptly addressed.”

The allegation that Bryan was the only Black teacher in the district since 2002 was inaccurate, Lentsch said, though she did not know the exact number of Black teachers.

According to her suit, Bryan became a “pariah” in the English department after complaining about another teacher who she said asked her in front of colleagues to translate “slave talk” from a character in Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible.” That teacher, who is white, also told her bags of peanuts left on a table at lunchtime were “for whites only,” the suit said. 

The suit also alleged school officials failed to discipline students who called Bryan “Aunt Jemima,” and that Bryan was denied a regular classroom even as white teachers with less experience got them. 

District officials agreed to give Bryan a “neutral” reference letter, and she agreed to take down a GoFundMe page, Help Black Teacher Fight for Justice, according to the settlement. The GoFundMe page, which raised $7,515, was still visible through a link in the settlement document, but donations were no longer being accepted. 

According to the settlement, the district’s insurance company will pay $120,000 to Bryan’s lawyer and the remainder to her.

Minorities accounted for 52.8% of Long Island public school students, but just 9.5% of full-time teaching staff in 2020-21, according to the state Education Department. In Commack, .6% of 462 teachers were Black or African American. 

With Jim Baumbach