Non-Spanish-Speaking Teacher Sues County After Being Denied Job Teaching Spanish

An English-speaking teacher in Florida is suing the Miami-Date County School Board claiming they discriminated against her by not hiring her for a job that requires her to teach Spanish, despite the fact that she has no knowledge of the language, the Miami New Times reports. Tracy Rosner, a third-grade teacher employed at Coral Reef Elementary in Palmetto Bay, filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida claiming discrimination based on the fact that she’s white. Good lord!

  1. The position would have required an hour of Spanish language teaching per day. Given that Rosner doesn’t know Spanish, that would probably prove pretty hard to do, so it’s no surprise why she wasn’t hired. While the school she teaches at offers three tracks for students – college preparatory, gifted, and extended foreign language (EFL), she wanted to be part of the EFL program and requested to be reassigned even though she has no knowledge of any other language but English.
  2. Rosner doesn’t believe she should have to speak the language. To make this story even more nuts, Rosner’s argument is that it’s “unfair” of the principal to expect a Spanish teacher to actually speak Spanish, especially since she believes she was “otherwise fully qualified” for the job.
  3. How exactly would she have taught the lessons then? According to Rosner, the principal could have hired her for the EFL track she requested and then simply found another teacher to do the Spanish lessons when required. You know, instead of actually hiring someone who could speak both Spanish and English and therefore fulfill all the requirements of the job.
  4. She claims the principal retaliated against her. After she was rejected from the EFL program, Rosner claims the principal doubled her workload (HOW?) and asked her to teach every subject instead of just English and language arts. After complaining to the school board, they found no reason to pursue the case and closed it, sparking the lawsuit.
  5. Rosner believes she’s at a disadvantage. In her lawsuit, she says being in the minority in Miami-Dade County by not speaking Spanish “disproportionally affects” Rosner. “As a direct and proximate result of the retaliation against Ms. Rosner, and the violation of her rights… Ms. Rosner was provided a less desirable position and has damages including emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, [and] loss of enjoyment of life.”
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