Masterman teachers who sued the Philly school district win back pay - but not requested asbestos information

The Philadelphia School District will give back pay to 50 Masterman teachers who were punished and docked wages when they worked outside for two days and publicly demanded answers about the asbestos inside their building.

Three Masterman current and former teachers sued the district in federal court in August on behalf of themselves and other Masterman staff over the August 2021 incident.

The school system, in a settlement finalized Thursday, agreed to pay $37,000, enough to reimburse teachers for their lost wages, with money left over to go into a fund that will help staff and community members advocate for protection against environmental hazards inside Philadelphia schools.

In addition to receiving back pay, all 50 teachers will have their disciplinary records cleared.

“The district has mutually agreed upon a fair and reasonable resolution of these claims,” spokesperson Monique Braxton said in a statement. “We are laser focused on building and maintaining a welcoming and supportive environment for our students and staff.”

The news cheered Ethan Tannen, a current Masterman math teacher and one of the three named plaintiffs. The others are Carolyn Gray, a veteran English teacher who has never had a disciplinary action in her 55 years teaching in Philadelphia, and Karen Celli, a retired sixth-grade teacher.

“I’m happy to have this finally resolved, and to have the district finally acknowledge that what they did was wrong,” said Tannen.

The incident happened at the beginning of the 2021-22 academic year, on days before students reported to school. The majority of the magnet school’s faculty worked outside the Spring Garden Street building in the school’s outdoor courtyard, conducting meetings, completing professional development tasks, and planning for students’ return.

Parents and students supportive of the teachers’ efforts made signs and provided water, and during a break, the faculty held a news conference at which politicians spoke. The staff said they did not feel safe inside the building.

The lawsuit said the district violated the teachers’ First Amendment rights: School officials knew the teachers were working, yet threatened, then punished the teachers to try to stop their protest, said Mary Catherine Roper, lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Staff had been asking for months for information about more than 60 areas of damaged asbestos, including some “imminent hazards” identified by inspectors at Masterman. The district had vowed to remove hundreds of feet of damaged asbestos, but it had not been handled before the teachers’ action.

District and school officials said the school was safe and told the staff that if they did not come inside, they would be disciplined. The teachers returned to the building only when students reported to school, and say they still do not have complete information.

Though the school system agreed to clear teachers’ records and pay back wages and lawyers’ fees, it did not capitulate to what Tannen said was the teachers’ most important ask: answers to all the staff’s specific questions about environmental hazards in the building. (The district is legally required to make federal asbestos reports publicly available, but the Masterman teachers wanted information not addressed by those documents.)

“While I am glad that our records have been cleared and that we’ll be paid for those days of work, there’s still the continual problem of lack of transparency and sharing of information regarding asbestos and building safety with families and staff,” said Tannen.

It’s unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to resolve the dispute, both Tannen and Roper said.

“This is what the school district should have done back in 2021,” said Roper. “I’m really glad to see the teachers finally getting their due. They never deserved to be punished.”