A San Diego school board temporarily replaced its superintendent last week and initiated an unspecified administrative leave against her after she made comments explaining why Asian students excel in school during a diversity equity and inclusion training session.
The San Dieguito Union High School District voted 3-1 to place superintendent Dr. Cheryl James-Ward on administrative leave while naming Tina Douglas, associate superintendent of business services, as the interim superintendent.
“She is in limbo because she's been suspended by the board but the board lacks a quorum to act on her employment,” said James-Ward’s attorney Josh Gruenberg. “What ultimately will probably happen is that the San Diego County Board of Education is going to come in and act as a board to make decisions on behalf of the district board and, at that point, it's our hope and belief that she will be reinstated.”
James-Ward, a former NASA engineer, a tenured San Diego State University professor, and a University of Southern California doctor of education, came under fire after she tried to explain that Asian students who do well in school have wealthy families who immigrated from China to the U.S. and own $2 million homes.
“Everything she said is entirely true,” Gruenberg told the Southern California Record. “A family’s socioeconomic status has a bearing on a student's success. Is that the only factor? Of course not but she never said it was. When someone suggested that Asian families do well because they live in multi-generational households, she readily agreed with that. Books have been written on it. What she said was certainly not inaccurate.”
The superintendent plans to sue the school board if she is terminated, according to Gruenberg.
“Placing her on administrative leave was retaliatory,” he said. “It was because she had filed a complaint of discrimination against Michael Allman and had told the board members that if they use certain maps to draw the district, then that would be held to be illegal. She was insisting that the board follow the law and they didn't like that. They tried to get her to not speak about it in an open meeting.”
An attempt to recall Allman, board vice president, failed last year, according to media reports.
“In employment situations, it's illegal to retaliate against someone for lodging a complaint and that's what this is about,” Gruenberg added. “This is not about terminating her because of the things she said. This is an employment case and she was terminated because she lodged a complaint against Michael Allman.”