Now, US Attorney Preet Bharara is going after the city Department of Education.
The agency stood by and did nothing as black teachers at a Queens high school were tormented by a kind of racial discrimination that is “unthinkable . . . in this day and age,” according a lawsuit filed by the federal prosecutor Thursday.
Principal Minerva Zanca allegedly targeted black educators at the Pan American International HS in Elmhurst, saying one “looked like a gorilla in a sweater,” mocking another’s “f- -king nappy hair” and even making disparaging comments about “big lips quivering” at a meeting.
Zanca, who is white, also tried to run black teachers John Flanagan, Heather Hightower and Lisa-Erika James out of the school through harassment and bad reviews, said the suit, which is the first ever filed by the US attorney against the DOE for discrimination, sources said.
“It is nearly unthinkable that, in this day and age, one of the largest and most diverse school districts in the United States would allow racial discrimination and retaliation to flourish,” Bharara said. “Federal civil-rights laws prohibit this misconduct. This suit seeks to . . . ensure that the [DOE] protects its employees’ civil rights.”
Zanca gave Flanagan and Hightower unsatisfactory ratings without having conducted classroom evaluations, the suit alleges. Since neither is protected by tenure, it was an apparent effort to get them fired.
She allegedly went after James, a tenured teacher, by cutting her theater program, the suit says.
The three teachers were the only black faculty members out of the 27 teachers at the school.
The principal also made derogatory comments about the trio to Assistant Principal Anthony Riccardo, the suit alleges.
Zanca once sniped that Hightower “looked like a gorilla in a sweater” and asked Riccardo whether he had seen Flanagan’s “big lips quivering” at a meeting, the complaint alleges.
She also allegedly said she could “never” have “f- -king nappy hair” like Hightower.
Zanca eventually turned on Riccardo when he failed to follow her orders to go after the black teachers, court papers allege.
Zanca accused Riccardo, who was escorted out of the school by security, of “sabotaging her plan” when he refused to give Hightower an unsatisfactory rating on a lesson in spring 2013, court papers allege.
The four educators lodged complaints with the DOE, but Zanca was never disciplined — not even after the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sided with them, according to Bharara’s complaint.
Zanca retired in June 2015 and is currently making $55,670 as a part-time guidance counselor at Frederick Douglass Academy in Brooklyn, sources said.
“I absolutely did not say any of those things to anyone about any of those teachers,” Zanca told The Post. “The allegations are false.”
Meanwhile, Hightower, Flanagan, James and Riccardo stopped working for the school after the 2012-13 school year.
“All employees’ work environments must be safe and supportive, and we have zero tolerance for any discrimination,” said DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye.
Additional reporting by Selim Algar