A highbrow Manhattan prep school is getting down and dirty to fight a former employee who claims he was fired for being straight.
The Trinity School on the Upper West Side called ousted coach Gregory Kenney a two-timing cad after he alleged in a lawsuit that he was fired by lesbian boss Pat Krieger in 2012 because he’s heterosexual.
School officials insist that Kenney wasn’t ostracized for his traditional lifestyle. But they don’t let things lie there.
In court papers filed last month in response to the teacher’s Manhattan civil suit, they say Kenney’s colleagues “overheard him lying to his wife about staying late for work events, only to attend bars with other women who were not his wife.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Kenney, a married father of three, told The Post.
He added that his wife “knows better” than to believe the allegations.
In his reverse-discrimination suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in December, the former gym teacher said, “On at least one occasion, Kenney was dissuaded from attending social events with his peers because he was a heterosexual, married male with children, who wouldn’t fit in with [Krieger’s] ‘culture.’ ”
Students have told The Post he was a popular coach until Krieger was hired in 2009.
Kenney said Krieger pushed him to take on extra responsibilities, and when he complained, citing family obligations, she told him, “We all make choices,” according to the suit.
Krieger “routinely favored other single, younger females without children and discriminated against [Kenney] because of his gender, sexual orientation, ‘traditional family status,’ and age,” his lawsuit says.
Krieger has refused comment.
Trinity’s lawyers say Kenney was ousted for leaving two students behind at an away game.
His lawyer, Steven Morelli, called the accusations “only mudslinging.”
“This guy is like Mr. Chips. He’s a devoted family man,” Morelli said.
The lawyer took the elite institution to task for trying to “sensationalize” the case and noted that the allegations were anonymous and unsubstantiated.
Kevin Ramsey, Trinity’s spokesman, declined to provide proof of the claims. The school’s lawyer did not return calls.