Town ousted its first Black superintendent in retaliation for reporting racism: complaint

Dr. Omar Easy, a former NFL star who became the first Black superintendent for Wayland Public Schools in Massachusetts, has filed a complaint alleging he was ousted in retaliation for reporting racism, said The Daily Beast on Monday.

"Despite his accomplishments — including obtaining grant money for the district and implementing safety measures in the midst of the pandemic — Easy alleges that he immediately experienced discriminatory acts after he took the job. According to the complaint, the board used racial dog whistles, like 'baselessly questioning [his] motives' and suggesting that he made educators 'uncomfortable,' to portray him as being aggressive, lazy, and otherwise incompetent," said the report. "He also claimed that white administrators refused to participate in activities he organized during leadership retreats and said the school committee refused to punish a white administrator who had shown racist behavior toward a Black administrator."

Additionally, the complaint continued, the school board — which is all white — did nothing in the face of Easy reporting increasingly racist graffiti — some of which targeted Easy himself.

"In December 2021, Easy said the Wayland school committee ignored his requests for something to be done about racist graffiti that had been plastered on the walls of a district middle school, reading '[N****R],' 'BLACK PEOPLE DIE,' and 'ALL BLACK PEOPLE NEED TO LEAVE THE DISTRICT NOW,'" said the report. "'I was accused of ‘destroying Wayland’s culture,’' Easy said in the complaint, which also claims white administrators blasted him for previously working in a Black-majority school district. In December 2022, he became the 'victim of a hate crime at work,' when 'OMAR = [N****R]' was written near the district’s high school, the complaint states."

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The town of Wayland did not respond to requests for comment; the school district did not comment on the specific allegations but stated that their goal is to "foster a welcoming, inclusive, anti-racist environment."

This is not the first time that an education official has alleged racial discrimination; as politicians around the country push a moral panic about "critical race theory" in public schools, one Black principal in Texas was allegedly also ousted for speaking out against racism. Black teachers, too, have faced abuse; one teacher in New Jersey was ordered by her principal to stop complaining about racist behavior from her colleagues and "be like Jackie Robinson."