Saturday, March 2, 2013

Lawsuit claims a British empire at the World Class Learning Academy on East 2nd Street

An axed admissions director at the World Class Learning Academy — a U.K.-based independent school for kids from 3 to 11 — claims in a lawsuit that British employees are treated much better than their American counterparts, the Post reports today.

In the suit claiming national-origin, sex and age discrimination, Sarah Bottoms, who lives in Brooklyn, alleges that administrators at the school on East Second Street "gave British employees greater allowances for time off, raises, excusal from student supervisory duties and subsidized lunches."

The school, at the site of the former LaSalle Academy, is run by Brits John and Dawn Taylor.

Also, there's this claim:

"On more than one occasion, Ms. Taylor told Ms. Bottoms that men preferred Asian woman because" their sexual organs were smaller, the suit claims.

Bottoms says she went to HR — and was fired.

An attorney for the school, where tuition is upwards of $34,000 annually, said that they will conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations.

[Image via Facebook]

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just Brits acting British. Having worked for a British company before, I'm really not surprised.

Not that all Brits are like this, but her story is believable.

VH McKenzie said...

"...they will conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations."

So we will, presumably, get to the bottom of this business about asian lady bits.

Anonymous said...

WORLD CLASS LEARNING ACADEMY
INSPIRED
SUCCESSFUL
EMPOWERED
SELF-AGGRANDIZING
HYPERBOLIC

Anonymous said...

Really? Knowing full well, your name is "Bottoms" you seek employ with a British run school...... This isn't news, it's an unfinished Monty Python sketch.

Anonymous said...

@ 10:59 AM
Oh, BEHAAAVE!!

Anonymous said...

Mrs Taylor is the headmaster's wife and she has a receptionist type role. Receptionists don't tend to run a school so it is puzzling that the media is suggesting she does. Her comment about men preferring Asian women does sound very unprofessional but who knows what the context was. Employees from other countries are often given expat type benefits making their employment packages more favorable than locally hired employees, and in many different types of institutions. This happens all over the world. This is an international school that provides a British model of education. Actually most of the student body is non British so it is not a mini British empire in the East Village at all. It makes sense that they employ British trained teachers to teach the British curriculum for parents who want that for their children. There are two such schools that do this in Manhattan as well as schools representing other countries such as France and Japan in the city. Let's hope they get to the bottom of what the problem actually is, one way or the other.... ;-)