The Institute for Free Speech says that “administrators check and condemn faculty members who criticize or question their chosen views.”
A traditional Bakersfield College teacher is appealing a judge’s decision to reject his complaint alleging his company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies intrude on his First Amendment rights.
Daymon Johnson, a history professor at the open community college, filed a lawsuit against the Californian institution after claiming to have been subject to a five-month managerial investigation for his online opinions. The Kern Community College District, which oversees the university, likewise is named in the complaint.
Johnson’s attorney, The Institute for Free Speech, informed The College Fix that he is contesting the decision.
” Naturally, we’re disappointed by the prosecutor’s decision, and we have appealed from it”, Vice President for Litigation Alan Gura stated in a new email to The Fix. Our initial appeals small is due on October 30.
On Sept. 23, the U. S. District Court for Eastern California ruled that Johnson had never adequately proven he faced an “actual or immediate” damage from the state’s analysis or implementation of its La policy, Policy 3050.
Johnson does not make an allegation that is” large threat” of Policy 3050 being enforced against him, according to the decision. It is unclear whether Policy 3050 can be imposed on anyone as a threshold or as a punitive measure because it appears to be an ambitious policy without any kind of punishment or punishment.
In the meantime, a Kern Community College District spokesperson told The College Fix that the organization is prepared to fight its scheme in judge.
” The District is pleased with the Court’s ruling”, the director stated in a new contact. ” The District principles the First Amendment right of its faculty, students, and community members and will continue to defend this problem”.
Ultimately, Johnson’s lawsuit seeks to stop college leaders from “investigating or disciplining ]him ] for offering his viewpoints” and end the mandatory teaching of “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” ideology.
Less: Professor disciplined for criticizing DEI gets$ 2.4 million lawsuit
A summary of the event posted on the institute’s site claims that Johnson and his attorneys claim the area and college have implemented “rules and practices” that “prevent faculty from exercising fundamental rights to free speech.”
” Executives investigate and punish instructors who criticize or question their desired landscapes, including state-mandated, administration-approved’ anti-racism’ ideology”, the university states.
” These officials have sent an unmistakable message: people who dares committed wrongthink against the state-approved ideology—or who challenges other instructors who promote that ideology—can have their occupations sidetracked or ruined”, it states.
Johnson does have reason to fear after another doctor, Matthew Garrett, was disciplined for expressing related complaints about the coverage in 2022, according to his problem.
Garrett later sued and agreed to a$ 2.4 million settlement with the Kern Community College District, The Fix reported. He furthermore agreed to withdraw from the university, according to the lawsuit.
In Johnson’s initial complaint, Bakersfield claimed that Garrett’s legal defenses included his usage of his individual social media accounts to voice his vital opinions of the college. Additionally, his employer cited his equation of diversity trainings as lawful discrimination.
As a result of Garrett’s situation, Johnson refrained from expressing related ideas electronically, according to his complaint.
Johnson furthermore stepped down from managing a liberal Twitter page, declined to appear on the same television present as Garrett, and remained silent on his thoughts of “anti-racist philosophy” embraced by then-college President Zav Dadabhoy, according to the problem.
Johnson also faced a five-month research in 2021, which was initiated by an administrative complaint from one of his acquaintances, Professor Andrew Bond, as recently reported by The Fix. Afterwards, Johnson was cleared of any crime.
Bond accused Johnson of “harassment and abuse” after Johnson criticized a 2019 Instagram post of Bond’s that referred to America as a “piece of s**t society”, according to the document.
” Probably Trump’s comment about hellhole countries was a declaration of prediction because actually, the US is a f***ing piece of shit region”, Bond wrote. ” Go ahead and price me, liberals. This nation has yet to live up to the principles set forth in its founding files.
Johnson reposted Bond’s article on the Renegade Institute for Liberty‘s Instagram page with the comment:” How’s what one important contest scholars at BC looks like. Do you agree with this radical SJW from BC’s English Department? Thoughts”?
Johnson then retweeted the institute’s post to his personal Facebook page and said,” Maybe he should move to China, and post this about the Chinese Communist Party in particular or the PRC in general and see how much money it brings him. I wonder, do they still send the family the bill for the spent round”?
The Renegade Institute for Liberty, which Johnson leads, is a group of Bakersfield faculty who are “dedicated to the free speech, open inquiry, critical thinking to advance American ideals”.
It hosts debates and guest speakers on campus to promote “meritocracy, individual agency, civic virtue, liberty of conscience and free markets”.
MORE: A professor files a lawsuit against a college after calling a peer social justice activist on social media
IMAGE: Vinnícius Lopes/Institute for Free Speech
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