Teacher Can't Speak Spanish, Doesn't Get Spanish Gig, Sues

Florida teacher says she's 'otherwise fully qualified' for the job
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 26, 2016 11:00 AM CDT
Non-Spanish-Speaking Teacher Sues for Not Getting Spanish Gig
No, she doesn't, actually.   (Shutterstock)

A Florida schoolteacher has filed a workplace discrimination lawsuit against her employer for turning her down for a job teaching Spanish—even though she doesn't speak Spanish, the News & Observer reports. Tracy Rosner, who teaches third grade at Coral Reef Elementary in Palmetto Bay, alleges in her federal complaint against the Miami-Dade County School Board that she applied to be reassigned to teach the extended foreign language (EFL) track—one of three tracks the school offers its students, in addition to college prep and gifted, per the Miami New Times—which would require her to teach one hour of Spanish per day. Rosner says her request was denied, even though she's "otherwise fully qualified" for the job, and that after she was rejected, the principal upped her workload in retaliation.

How Rosner says she would get around that pesky fluency requirement: She'd have another Spanish-speaking teacher come in for that one hour a day to instruct her students. She notes in her suit that non-Spanish speakers are in the minority in Miami-Dade County, which "disproportionately affects" her ability to find a suitable job. "Ms. Rosner was provided a less desirable position and has damages including emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, [and] loss of enjoyment of life," the suit states. It's not clear which track Rosner had previously been teaching or why she had asked for the reassignment. (The owner of a Milwaukee frozen-custard stand doesn't want any language other than English spoken at work.)

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