St. Paul Public Schools has settled a discrimination lawsuit brought by a teacher who says she was fired because she is white.

Katherine Carrick, 34, taught at Hazel Park Preparatory Academy for most of the 2013-14 school year before she was placed on administrative leave in April and later fired. Related Articles St. Paul district eyes 5% tax hike for renovations, new school, more

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Carrick said Principal Delores Henderson hired her full time after a 2013 summer school appointment. But Henderson grew cold to Carrick after seeing the teacher kiss her then-boyfriend, who was black, in the school parking lot, Carrick said in a phone interview Wednesday.

“She just stopped being kind and professional,” Carrick said.

According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Henderson, who is black:

made frequent classroom visits and gave Carrick “negative, harassing feedback,” assigning her a “below standard” rating when an assistant superintendent had rated her more favorably;

accused Carrick of being unable to relate to black students and unable to teach them because of “cultural differences”;

suggested Carrick start a club for “white girls” after the teacher offered to help in a school club for black girls;

asked Carrick if she thought Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges married a black man to “get the black vote.”

Carrick said the official reason she was given for her dismissal was that she left school without lining up a substitute teacher. She says she did request a sub but the school district canceled it.

Later, after she filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the district told her she was fired for a “lack of best teaching practices used in the classroom.”

In a legal filing responding to Carrick’s complaint, the district said it had “legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for terminating Plaintiff’s employment.”

Carrick sued the district in federal court last December, and a settlement was reached last week.

The terms of the settlement were not included in the court file. However, Carrick said the district agreed to pay her $8,000 and to change her firing to a resignation.

Carrick said she doesn’t need the money, but she wanted it in the public record that Henderson has a history of mistreating white teachers.

“I wanted to bring exposure to what was going on,” she said.

School district spokeswoman Toya Stewart Downey said the terms of the settlement will be public if and when it is approved by the school board.

She said Henderson was “not available to discuss” the allegations.

Henderson has worked in education for over 50 years. In 2014, the Pacific Educational Group gave her a national award for racial equity leadership.

A K-8 school, Hazel Park’s student body is predominantly black and Asian-American. Sixty percent of the school’s teachers are white.

Districtwide last school year, 83 percent of teachers and 23 percent of students were white.