Principal allegedly harasses guidance counselor due to Seeing Eye dog

EAST FLATBUSH (WABC) -- A high school guidance counselor was ousted and shuffled to a new school.

She says it's because of her Seeing Eye dog.

The counselor who became legally blind after brain surgery says she was discriminated against by the principal and wants her old job back.

"It's humiliating. It's insulting. I'm isolating," said Tami Hernandez-Rosenberg, a guidance counselor.

Blind guidance counselor Tami Hernandez-Rosenberg blames her former principal for those emotions.

According to a complaint filed earlier this month against the city's Department of Education, Frederick Underwood, the principal at IS 285 in East Flatbush, harassed and discriminated against the 45-year-old because she came to work with her Seeing Eye dog.

"He made it very clear that he didn't want the guide dog in the building, what about the kids with asthma and allergies and so forth," Hernandez-Rosenberg said.

Hernandez-Rosenberg relies on her 4-year-old black lab to guide her virtually everywhere.

She says for the last several years the principal altered her schedule, added responsibilities, and constantly changed her para-professional assistants all in a calculated effort to get her to leave.

"She needs help navigating her way out during a fire drill and nobody came to assist her during more than one fire drill while she was at the school," said Michael Borrelli, an attorney.

Because of the pending litigation, the DOE offered no comment. As for the principal, he told one reporter he supported Hernandez-Rosenberg and her dog saying, "We did that which was above and beyond what we had to do, we complied to all her accommodations," adding her complaint is a "contradiction to what took place."

Just this week Hernandez-Rosenberg was transferred to another school. But through her complaint she hopes to get her old job at the school she loves, for the principal to get fired, and some compensation for all she's been through.