Previous English teacher criticized university’s race-based grading system.
After a city judge dismissed his lawsuit in March, Zack De Piero, a teacher, plans to file an appeal.
De Piero, who worked on the Abington school of Penn State, claimed that he was essentially forced to resign in 2022 as a result of a number of disagreements with another workers regarding the institution’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
According to his grievance, “individually targeted for scorn and shame because of his skin” was claimed.
He told The College Fix in a move meeting last month,” If you’re being bombarded by unfair advertising on a monthly, weekly, or occasionally daily schedule, it takes its toll on you.” That actually makes you miserable.
De Piero’s attorneys, Mountain States Legal Foundation Senior Counsel James Kerwin and General Counsel William Trachman, announced that they intend to charm this month.
Kerwin expressed confidence in the legal requirements they may rely on in the allure are properly established when speaking with The Fix.
” There are similar situations that are percolating up to the courts,” he said. They are starting to have some achievement, and judges are beginning to understand that colleges and universities can be a part of these very intense La practices in the workplace.
According to Kerwin, the main distinction between these situations and prior discrimination lawsuits is that they are frequently brought by non-traditional defendants.
There was a lot of bias in the United States when the Civil Rights Act and all these issues happened in the 1960s, he said. Today, there is discrimination against all forms, but the rules hasn’t changed.
” However, this shouldn’t be the case, but the race of my client does seem to make a difference,” she said. If the allegations and the evidence in this case had been reversed, and you had simply swapped black for white, it would have been evident that the event would not have been dismissed on overview judgment. There would be a judge trial in this matter, he told The Fix.
The Fix emailed the school’s media relations department and several of the defendants named in the case to request a response, but none of them did.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone granted Penn State a motion for summary judgment on March 6 and agreed with the school’s claim that De Piero did never provide” enough data” to back up his discrimination claims.
According to a backup of the ruling given to The Fix, Beetlestone refuted the allegations, arguing that” no fair judge may decide that the twelve incidents at matter here constitute a” constant pounding of essentialist, linear, and bad language” that warrants his hostile work environment claims to be brought to trial.  ,
De Piero alleges in the suit that the university held a number of race-based training sessions in the fall of 2021, including” White teachers are a problem” and” The Myth of the Colorblind Classroom: White Instructors Confront White Privilege.”
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De Piero told The Fix that in one session, the provost instructed non-black professors to hold their breath” a little longer” so they could “feel the pain” that George Floyd experienced.
De Piero asserted that “it was coming from a lot of different angles.” It was undoubtedly coming from the DEI office. You had to sit back and accept it because it was coming from my immediate supervisor very aggressively.
He said at a meeting in October 2021,” I knew the crosshairs were on me, I knew this was very intense. I was as cool and composed as I could have been when I simply said,” That’s a pretty extreme charge, could you please help us understand what you’re asking us to do?” And I was accused of harassment and bullying for asking that question.
De Piero claimed that he spoke with the associate director of the Pennsylvania Affirmative Action Office after two faculty members complained about bullying and harassment, and that he was told,” It was inappropriate for you to ask for examples.”
De Piero also claimed in the lawsuit that the university “encouraged race-based grading practices to ensure consistent grades for students across [color lines ]s].” His supervisor, Liliana Naydan, allegedly told him that “racism is in the results if the results draw a color line.”
Naydan was urged by the complaint to “assure that all students see that white supremacy manifests itself in language and writing pedagogy” and to “assure that all black students can find success in our classrooms.”
In response to these events, De Piero sued Penn State and several of its employees for allegedly violating Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, both of which prohibit the development of racial discrimination in some way or another.
Additionally, his complaint claims that” De Piero engaged in constitutionally protected speech and was adversely affected by an employment action as a result.”
The retaliation for speech claim, according to Attorney Kerwin, is also very, very significant in this case. That assertion was quickly dissented by the judge, but that is a ruling we are undoubtedly contesting.
According to him,” there is a long line of case law from the Supreme Court that states that the government is basically suppressing free speech when you’re the government and it’s your employee and you take an action against them because of what they’ve said.”
De Piero urged professors to” say what you have to say, say what you mean, and mean what you say” when asked how he might advise them in a similar situation. Do what you believe is right.
MORE: White professor at Penn State files a discrimination lawsuit against racial discrimination.
Zach De Piero is suing Pennsylvania State University for alleged racial discrimination. Fox News Digital
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