Panel To Review Ex-Andover Teacher's Discrimination Complaint

ANDOVER, MA -- The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination plans to investigate whether the firing of West Elementary School special education teacher Jacquelyn Silvani was retaliatory and related to the cost of her son's cancer treatments. A finding against the school department could cost the department millions in damages, according to Silvani's lawyer.

Silvani told the Eagle-Tribune, which first reported this story, that she received a letter from the commission saying Andover Public Schools "didn’t provide anything to cause them to believe that this wasn’t retaliatory." The school system disputes her claim and told the newspaper that the commission's decision to hear Silvani's complaint means that it has only found probably cause.

Silvani filed a discrimination complaint against the school district in February that claimed she was fired from her job as an elementary school teacher because of the high cost of her son's cancer treatments. At the time of her termination, Silvani's three year-old son's cancer treatments had cost the school system more than $1 million.

The school system said Silvani was laid off in 2016 because of a lack of funding. But a few months later the job was reposted. Silvani reapplied for her old job but was not rehired or even interviewed, according to her complaint.

For more on this story, see the Eagle-Tribune. Subscribe to Andover Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).