Educational expert and former Boston School Committee member Mary Tamer yesterday sued a collection of New York-based educational-reform groups, charging they fired her in September as their Massachusetts coordinator - in the middle of the battle over an MCAS ballot question - not because she wasn't doing her job well but because their CEO, former Providence mayor Jorge Elorza, has strong disdain for women, particularly older ones.
In her suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Tamer alleges that Elorza began belittling women at Democrats for Education Reform and two sister organizations soon after he was hired in April, 2023, and that things got so bad, women staffers began leaving and an outside consultant hired by the board to investigate what quickly became a "toxic culture" prepared a "highly damning" report that led one board member to allegedly conclude Elorza had to go.
The suit charges that almost as soon as he was on board, Elorza went around "asking younger female employees how old they were in a condescending manner" and then continued:
In October of 2023, at an all-staff retreat in Nashville, additional incidents occurred,including Mr. Elorza asking women about their ages and subjecting them to dismissive treatment. In stark contrast, male employees, including male executive directors, were treated well by Mr. Elorza, their opinions valued and their roles protected.
Tamer, herself hired by the group in 2022, alleges she began to feel his indirect wrath after "inquiring Mr. Elorza's decision to join a Koch-funded right-wing coalition that seemed contrary to the organization's best interests and mission."
Not long after, she was called into a meeting with one of his subordinates for a "feedback" meeting that she filed a complaint with HR over, which was followed, she avers, by a mid-year review of her performance full of falsehoods that belied her past excellent reviews.
Then, in September, as her group was trying to save MCAS against a ballot question to repeal it - voters ultimately approved its repeal - Tamer alleges, she was fired over Zoom.
Her suit alleges discrimination, based on both her gender and her age, and retaliation, based on the way she was fired based on her "protected activity" of speaking out about workplace conditions. She is seeking both compensatory damages for lost wages and enough punitive damages to make the groups think twice about ever doing what they did to her again.
The groups have until June 3 to file an answer.
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Comments
Tamer's Credibility Questionable
By jmack
Tue, 02/04/2025 - 6:12pm
This is the same Mary Tamer who put out one of the more notoriously racist pieces of campaign literature in recent local political memory. If what she alleges is true, then shame on that organization. But also take anything she alleges with a heavy grain of salt given her track record.
https://www.universalhub.com/2021/election-roundup-tamer-apologizes-tone...
You clearly haven't been in Boston long
By BS Meter
Wed, 02/05/2025 - 4:31pm
Oh yes, the false cries of racism from the pillar of virtue and honesty that was Kendra Lara. Given how spotless her record is (not), your criticism of a woman suing for discrimination is really rich.
Lara obviously showed herself
By anon
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 10:56am
Lara obviously showed herself unfit for the office and got thrown out. That doesn't change how Tamer conducted her campaign. She apologized for that mailer so you can't sit here and claim it was a false cry of racism. That thing was blatant.
Lie down with dogs, get up
By Christine Langhoff
Wed, 02/05/2025 - 2:41pm
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
But also, Adam, how has Tamer earned the description of "educational expert"? She's a policy person, mostly operating outside public education, and has never spent time in a classroom or schools as far as I can see. A degree from HGSE is what gave her entrée to DFER and SchoolFacts; certainly graduating from BLS isn't qualifying.
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