Long Island school district seeks to fire educator who had ‘raging’ case of COVID; ‘The way I’m being treated is just appalling,’ she says

A Long Island public school administrator who in 2009 donated a kidney to a student and in 2020 contracted coronavirus says she’s the victim of a textbook case of discrimination by her district.

Jennifer Mazzotta-Perretti told the Daily News she’s still suffering from lingering migraines, fatigue and low-grade fevers as she slowly recovers from COVID-19 with only one kidney.

She said she was called into a video meeting Aug. 7 — just a few weeks after she got a doctor’s note saying she should work remotely through Sept. 7 — and was told she was losing her job with the Massapequa School District.

Her boss claimed the reason was that in 2018 and 2019, she’d forwarded some work emails with student information to a Gmail account she shared with her domestic partner, she said.

“It was shocking. I felt like someone took all the wind out of me. I just felt like it couldn’t be. It had to be a misunderstanding,” Mazzotta-Perretti told The News.

The longtime educator — who has worked in the Massapequa district for three years, and oversees 1,200 special education students — said she forwarded the emails so she could continue working on her cases at home during nights and weekends.

“It just didn’t make any sense. It’s not like there was any special training on never using a Gmail account. Nobody had ever spoken to me about it before,” she said.

Mazzotta-Perretti believes the emails are being used as a pretext to terminate her employment.

“I feel like the way I’m being treated is just appalling,” she said. “I don’t want my 23-year career to be ruined by being terminated because I got sick and needed help.”

The teacher-turned-administrator said she always received positive evaluations, never missed a raise and was offered a new contract for the upcoming year that she signed Aug. 4.

“Dr. Perretti is an ethical, compassionate, empathetic, and student-centered administrator. She is passionate and enthusiastic about helping students and supporting families,” her boss, Jordan McCaw, wrote her most recent evaluation signed June 1, according to a copy shared by Mazzotta-Perretti.

Neil O’Brien, the father whose son Kevin received the kidney from Mazzotta-Perretti in 2009, said the glowing words about her dedication to students were “100% correct.”

“We love Jennifer. She stepped up and did an amazing thing for our family. In our dealings with her, she was always great, very empathetic,” O’Brien, 64, told The News.

Kevin was one of Mazzotta-Perretti’s students when she taught at Nassau BOCES in Wantagh, and she donated one of her kidneys to him after a writing assignment about doing good deeds led to a discussion about his need for a transplant.

“It’s unbelievable what they’re doing to her. What a raw deal,” the dad from Oyster Bay said. “How can you do that to somebody when they have a real issue?”

McCaw did not personally respond to requests for comment from The News.

“As this is a matter of personnel, the district has no comment. However, the district unequivocally denies any and all allegations of discrimination, misconduct, and/or wrongdoing made against any district personnel,” Superintendent of Schools Lucille Iconis said in a statement Tuesday.

“Unless the matters are resolved by agreement, Dr. Mazzotta-Perretti is committed to aggressively pursuing discrimination, retaliation, and other claims against the school district,” said her lawyer, Isaac Nesser of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Mazzotta-Perretti says she contracted her case of COVID-19 from a co-worker who was infected during a hospital visit for a hip surgery. He didn’t realize he was contagious when they met together with a family on March 9, she said.

Her partner, Jessica Mastrogiovanni, said that at one point she and Mazzotta-Perretti’s son were preparing for the worst.

“It was very scary. She was so sick, unable to breathe. She had raging fevers, was up all night. We had to put her in a recliner chair because of the weight on her lungs,” Mastrogiovanni said. “We were literally making final arrangements. It was very scary for us.”

Mazzotta-Perretti said the irony of being a special needs administrator who’s now the one asking for accommodation isn’t lost on her.

“I’m always helping everyone, and I need help. I don’t need help much, but I need help right now. Otherwise I won’t have job and benefits in the middle of a pandemic,” she said. “This is my life’s work. I love what I do.”