Watch what you say at exclusive Trinity School – even if you insist you didn’t say it.
The associate librarian at the 300-year-old Upper West Side institution is learning the hard way after he got fired for something he claims he never said.
Last week, he sued in Manhattan Supreme Court to get his job back.
And although he doesn’t allege it in the lawsuit, David Murphy told The Post that he believes the school canned him because he’s gay. Murphy, 53, said he didn’t include the antigay claim in the suit because it would be harder to prove than the procedural violations that he charges in the suit.
The lawyer for the school denied Murphy’s allegiations.
“Trinity categorically denies that his contract was not renewed because he is gay,” the school’s lawyer, Robin ColinGreene said. “The decision not to renew Mr. Murphy’s contract was totally and completely justified.” Murphy has worked as a middle-school librarian at the posh prep school on West 91st Street and Columbus Avenue – which lists Larry Hagman and John McEnroe among its alumni – for 10 years. He also has 22 years’ experience in the New York City public school system.
But in January, upperschool science teacher Patty Niles complained that during some loose cafeteria gossip, Murphy dissed another faculty member. She said he “implied that the colleague was a pedophile or even a serial killer,” according toMurphy’s suit.
Niles allegedly claimed Murphy said he “understood what had happened to all the newsboys who had gone missing from [the colleague’s] front door.” She took her complaint to headmaster HenryMoses.
Murphy denied making the comment or even having lunch with Niles, he says in the suit. Niles did not respond two requests for comment.
But the headmaster didn’t buy it.
Murphy claims Moses refused to allow him to appeal his dismissal before the school board, saying they had clashed before.
The earlier dispute, Murphy said, came when he recommended an Indian colleague attend a “people of color” conference instead of two white males the school had picked to attend.
“The private schools act like a plantation,” Murphy said.
Murphy said he went around Moses, directly to the appeals committee, to get his day in front of the Trinity tribunal. They looked at the facts and recommended Murphy stay on, he said.
Moses was unmoved and held fast to his decision to let his librarian go, citing a “documented pattern of unacceptable conduct,” according to the complaint.