More than 100 Atlanta teachers have joined the federal age discrimination lawsuit claiming that they were forced out of their jobs or otherwise penalized by an administration which cultivated an environment openly hostile to the teachers over 40, according to the lawyer for plaintiffs.

The Atlanta Public Schools “vehemently denies these allegations and intends to vigorously defend against these claims. The case is still in its early stages and APS looks forward to proving that no such discrimination took place,” said the district spokeswoman Pat St. Claire in a written statement.

More teachers could sign on in the coming weeks before 1st May, which is a deadline to join the suit.

The suit targets the teachers who lost their jobs amid a new administration’s efforts to improve the struggling Atlanta public schools.

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APS routinely keeps very close supervision on the older teachers in hopes of finding something wrong, gives them worse evaluations than the younger and also less experienced teachers, reassigns them to the schools that are more difficult to work in, tells them that they impact the budget and also the pension fund too much, and repeatedly makes demeaning and also derogatory statements to its older teachers, claims the suit.

“We believe the proof is there. It's just a matter of us assembling it,” said Lester Tate, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The school district has denied the claim, that it discriminated against the older teachers and said in the court filings that any adverse employment decisions were the result of legitimate, and non-discriminatory reasons.

More than 60 percent of the Atlanta teachers were over 40 when Superintendent Meria Carstarphen was hired in the year 2014, a percentage that remained unchanged as of in the last year, district said in the court filings.  

Mrudula Duddempudi.