Schwartz Perry & Heller LLP achieved a remarkable victory for their client, Leslie Chislett, in a case against the New York City Department of Education and former Chancellor Richard Carranza.
On September 25, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision and allowed Ms. Chislett’s claim of a racially hostile work environment to proceed to trial.
This case involved race discrimination against Caucasians during DEI trainings sponsored by a municipality. The Court recognized that a jury could find the comments Ms. Chislett was subjected to were motivated by race, including labeling the values of “white culture” as “supremacist” and one official declaring, “There is white toxicity in the air and we all breathe it in.” The court recognized that not all implicit bias trainings are per se discriminatory, but a training that focuses “negative language about a particular race” violates federal law.
The Chislett decision clears the way for other employees to hold municipalities accountable for discrimination. The court cited the DOE’s inaction that permitted the harassment to become “so manifest as to imply the constructive acquiescence of senior policy-making officials.”
The Chislett ruling sends a message that race discrimination will not be tolerated in any form. It also puts governmental employers on notice that they must act to prevent discrimination or face consequences for tolerating such harassment. While we are proud of this significant advancement of the law, we are most pleased that Ms. Chislett will finally have her day in court.
The case is Chislett v. New York City Department of Education, Docket No. 24-972, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 24831 (2d Cir. Sept. 25, 2025)