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Mental-Health Evaluation, Discipline Sought For Greeley Assistant Principal

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. -- Chappaqua's school board is seeking to have Horace Greeley High School Assistant Principal Michael Taylor, who is suing the school district for alleged racial bias, undergo a mental-health evaluation.

Horace Greeley High School Assistant Principal Michael Taylor, pictured speaking at the school's 2014 graduation.

Horace Greeley High School Assistant Principal Michael Taylor, pictured speaking at the school's 2014 graduation.

Photo Credit: Tom Auchterlonie

The request came to light in a letter filed in federal court on Feb. 17 by Lewis R. Silverman, an attorney who is representing the district for the lawsuit. The letter is the latest document to be filed with the court.

The review, which is a psychiatric examination, is pursuant to section 913 of the state's education law, Silverman wrote.

Silverman is also seeking shared access to Taylor's medical records for discovery in the lawsuit.

A copy of Silverman's letter can be read here.

Silverman wrote that both parties in the lawsuit are interested in pursuing a mediation of the case. He also disclosed that the district is seeking to bring disciplinary charges against Taylor.

Charges would amount to deja vu for Taylor, who has worked at Greeley since 2004. 

The administrator stated in his lawsuit that he was previously brought up on disciplinary charges by the district after he left his 9-year-old daughter at school with a secretary while attending to a personal matter in August 2013. The veteran administrator added that he faced a 3020-a disciplinary hearing in March 2014.

Taylor, who is the district's only black administrator and who claims that white counterparts have been treated better than he has, alleges that the hearing's white officer told him to settle or else he would impose a harsher punishment. Therefore, Taylor alleges, he accepted an “an unduly punitive settlement" under duress.

Taylor claims that the district had no policy against what he did and that he was also retaliated against after he filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner (EEOC) in September 2014.

The district, as a matter of policy, does not comment on pending lawsuits or on personnel matters such as the aforementioned ones.

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