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Judge dismisses parent’s class-action lawsuit seeking damages for Newton teachers strike
The union will still pay more than $600,000 in fines, split between Newton Public Schools and the Commonwealth Treasury.
The class-action lawsuit brought by three Newton families seeking damages connected to the recent 11-day teacher strike was denied by a judge Tuesday, the union announced.
Lital Asher-Dotan, along with two other parents, allege the Newton Teachers Association’s strike pushed parents “to a point of desperation” which was “willful, wanton, and wrong.” The suit claims that the teachers denied students their right to education.
Middlesex Superior Court Judge Christopher Barry-Smith, who presided over the initial injunction filed to get teachers back into the classroom, dismissed Dotan’s motion.
“Accordingly, the case is over, and this motion to intervene is denied as moot,” Barry-Smith wrote.
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Dotan’s name was included in the original injunction to get teachers back into the classroom. She filed a motion during the strike on behalf of her three children, asking the judge to force the teachers to return to school.
Dotan’s lawyers, Boston-based Ilya Feoktistov and Chicago-based Daniel Suhr, submitted the motion for damages last week. Suhr filed a similar lawsuit against the Chicago Teachers Union for their 2022 strike this week, using the same graphs and news articles. They are asking for $250 million in damages related to the five-day strike, a local paper reported.
“The members of the NTA are also glad to see the end to the politically motivated legal actions taken against our union for going on strike,” the union said in a statement. “The national movement aimed at weakening educator unions and other public-sector unions is not welcome here, as it undermines advocacy for the public good.”
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Barry-Smith also ruled that the union must pay $625,000 in fines, the union said. $275,000 will be paid to Newton Public Schools as compensatory fines, and $350,000 to the Commonwealth Treasury in coercive fines. The NTA said they sought this arrangement before returning to work earlier this month.
“The Newton Teachers Association is pleased that the court agreed to the terms of the return-to-work agreement sought jointly by our union and the School Committee,” the NTA said. “We are at an important point now to move forward with implementing the terms of our new contract, which allows us to better meet the needs of our students.”
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