PATERSON, N.J. – Paterson high school Noreen Sweeney is suing her employer for more than $1 million after she alleges school officials discriminated against her because she’s a white lesbian.

Sweeney taught in Waldwick and Newark before coming to the Paterson school district in 2001, and she worked at International High School for several years with positive reviews, NorthJersey.com reports.

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In 2014, the tenured teacher was reassigned by district officials to a “rubber room” – or holding area where union protected teachers do nothing pending disciplinary action – where she remained for two years before recently returning to work as a teacher’s aide, according to My9NJ.com.

“There was no explanation given to her for the transfer. It was only later that she found out that the reason for the transfer was because of comments she allegedly made in late February of 2014 about a vice principal who worked in the building,” Sweeney’s attorney, Jason Nunnermacker, told the news site.

The alleged remarks described vice principal Amod Field as overpaid, referenced abuse of power, and cited an incident of Field beating a female student, though Sweeney contends she never made the comments, according to the lawsuit.

The litigation, filed April 20 in Newark federal court, also alleges that district officials treated her case much differently than those of black employees who committed more egregious offenses.

“Sweeney … claimed that school officials transferred several white staffers to other schools and have been the subject of other discrimination lawsuits,” North Jersey reports. “She also said that an African-American employee who was accused of taking an inappropriate selfie with students was once investigated and later returned to work, without being banished to the ‘rubber room’ or enduring similar humiliation that Sweeney suffered.”

“Another employee was watching essentially sexual images on a cell phone with two other students, and … his investigation was for 19 days, and he was allowed to stay at home,” Nunnermacker told My9NJ.com. “Why was my client put in a rubber room for two years?”

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Paterson district spokeswoman Terry Corallo refused to discuss the case with the media.

“We look forward to proving that Ms. Sweeney was unfairly discriminated against,” Nunnermacker told North Jersey. “It really is reprehensible how she was treated.”

Several of Sweeney’s former students and other local residents weighed in on the lawsuit online.

“Ms. Sweeney is an amazing educator,” Hanoon Hansan wrote. “We stand with you.”

“Had Ms. Sweeney as a history teach I can say the best teacher I ever had,” Shayde Santos posted. “She made it fun to learn. She had all the kids wanting to be in her class and learn history. We knew she was gay but no one cared because she truly loved us.”

Others pointed to a bigger problem.

“Ms. Sweeney has suffered under the extra-legal rules Paterson uses to extricate teachers from their positions on the whims of supervisors. They are expected to endure a Kafkaesque, undefined investigation intendened to fore the victim to either resign or face a hearing before the state board of commissioners, charges never declared!” wrote Dan Ludwig, who retired Paterson Public Schools.

“Oversight of this abomination is left to ‘Captain’ Smith, an ex-city patrolman with a questionable past, a sadistic streak, and a Sherlock Holmes complex,” he wrote.