‘Poisoned By Bigotry’: 3rd Suit Alleges Anti-LGBTQ Bias By Manchester Superintendent, BOE

MANCHESTER, NJ — The former director of the Manchester Township Schools’ preschool program alleges in a lawsuit that pervasive anti-LGBTQ sentiments from Superintendent Diane Pedroza and the Manchester Township Board of Education made it a hostile place to work and led to her contract not being renewed.

Lori Burns, who worked for the district from November 2022 to June 2024, alleges in the lawsuit filed Oct. 28 in Superior Court in Ocean County that the district’s school board and Pedroza “are poisoned by bigotry, bias if not hate of ‘other,’ ” directed at “those who belong to the LGBTQIA2S+ communities” and that it created a hostile environment that violates New Jersey’s law against discrimination.

Burns, who is a lesbian, is the third former administrator to sue the district alleging an anti-LGBTQ bias affected her employment.

Former superintendent John Berenato, who was fired by the school board in November 2023, filed suit in May alleging he was fired because he is gay. In mid-October, the former director of special services, Bridget Antonucci, filed a suit accusing Pedroza and members of the school board of bigotry toward the LGBTQ community and other groups, including Hispanics and Jews.

“The Manchester Township School District can not provide any comment or information regarding pending litigation,” district spokeswoman Dina Silvestri said in reply to a request for comment.

Burns was a named defendant in a lawsuit filed by Evelyn Swift, principal at Whiting Elementary School, who alleged Berenato harassed her and discriminated against her based on her age. Swift alleged Antonucci and Burns assisted Berenato in his efforts to try to force Swift out.

Swift agreed to a dismissal of her lawsuit after six months of mediation, according to a court filing in the case

Burns, in her lawsuit, alleges board members sent “disgusting derogatory texts regarding sexual acts” to Berenato and that “there was no subtlety to the MBOE’s overtly hostile discriminatory conduct against Mr. Berenato.”

She alleges that the board fired Berenato “because he represented a lifestyle the majority of MBOE members rejected out-of-hand” … “based on their conservative Christian beliefs as well as their fear that he would establish a District environment which would indoctrinate District students

in the LGBTQIA2S+ community.”

Burns also alleges that after Berenato was fired and Pedroza was promoted to interim superintendent, Pedroza began to target Burns with criticisms of her work performance. Burns alleges Pedroza left her out of meetings relevant to her oversight of the preschool program but included her in meetings regarding LGBTQ matters that had no bearing on the preschool program.

During the district’s QSAC evaluation, she alleges Pedroza asked to participate in the meeting “solely on the basis of her lesbian status and not to be a viable participant in the important exercise of discerning whether the District was compliant with State mandated inclusive curriculum directives. If anything the Plaintiff concluded that the District did not take its inclusivity mandate seriously when their Chief School Administrator (Mrs. Pedroza)

thought that trotting out an openly gay administrator for a program (Early Childhood) not under QSAC scrutiny, could somehow validate their evident non-compliance,” Burns said in the lawsuit.

Burns resigned effective June 1, and said in the lawsuit that Pedroza had made it clear she would not be rehired or, at the very least, would have been demoted from director to supervisor of the preschool program.”

“Defendants resented tolerance and inclusion and shunned those District administrators and employees who supported the unequivocal policies of this State requiring this very tolerance and inclusion,” the lawsuit says.