NC teacher who says he was fired for opposing Critical Race Theory wins settlement

The North Carolina Governor’s School will adopt a new policy on faculty free speech rights and pay $21,000 to a teacher who claimed he was fired for speaking out against Critical Race Theory.

In 2021, David Phillips filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired from the popular summer program after some staff members complained about his elective seminars criticizing Critical Race Theory.

The lawsuit was dismissed in April after a settlement was reached. Phillips will receive pay for four years of the summer program, and the Governor’s School will approve a new policy on the free speech rights of faculty to give elective seminars.

“Teachers shouldn’t be fired for fostering intellectual diversity on campus,” Hal Frampton, Phillips’ attorney and senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a news release announcing the settlement. “A good education includes providing students with a wide range of differing viewpoints to explore,”

The state says in the settlement that it denies Phillips’ claims but wants “to resolve the entire matter on mutually agreeable terms.”

Program for gifted high school students

The Governor’s School is a four-week summer program that serves gifted high school students pursuing academic and artistic endeavors. It will have campuses this summer at Meredith College in Raleigh and Greensboro College in Greensboro.

The program was started in 1963 by Gov. Terry Sanford and is recognized as the oldest program of its kind in the nation and a model for other states.

The program includes daily elective seminars. Examples of recent seminars, according to the student handbook, include “Women in Comic Books: The Subjugation of Superpowers,” “The Paradox of Southern Feminism” and “Design For Ecological Democracy.”

In 2021, Phillips gave three seminars critiquing concepts from Critical Race Theory and “the increasing ideological bias and lack of viewpoint diversity in higher education.” The lawsuit said students and faculty members came to the seminars “making comments that referenced whiteness, maleness, heteronormativity, and Christianity” and saying they disagreed with Phillips’ views.

Critical Race Theory is a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life,” according to the UNC-Chapel Hill history department. The lawsuit comes amid a national debate over whether Critical Race Theory, also known as CRT, is being taught in K-12 classrooms.

The day after the seminar on viewpoint diversity in higher education, Phillips said he was told that his employment was being terminated effective immediately.

Truitt criticized teacher who sued state

The lawsuit had named the state Department of Public Instruction and several current and former DPI and Governor’s School employees as defendants. DPI runs the Governor’s School.

The lawsuit prompted State Superintendent Catherine Truitt to write a letter to lawmakers in 2021 saying she had made changes “that protect the students and faculty from any woke/inappropriate materials finding their way into the curriculum,” The News & Observer previously reported.

While never mentioning Phillips by name, Truitt told lawmakers in the 2021 letter that the teacher was dismissed for “their conduct, not their content.”

“Instead, as the facts will show, this person made students very uncomfortable, belittled them, used racial slurs, and even brought some students to tears, all without allowing for any discussion or open dialogue as required by NC DPI,” Truitt told lawmakers. “That is not what we should expect of any person in authority, particularly someone teaching inside a classroom.”

Alliance Defending Freedom said Truitt’s allegations were false.

Truitt’s lack of support for Phillips led to complaints from some conservative groups. Truitt lost the Republican primary in March to Michele Morrow, an activist who has accused public schools of indoctrinating students.

Seminars will present ‘wide range of viewpoints’

Under the settlement, the Governor’s School Board of Trustees agreed to adopt a policy on elective seminars that will be put into the employee handbook.

The new policy says the program “strives to offer elective seminars that present a wide range of viewpoints.” It also says faculty members are encouraged to develop seminars that will “challenge students to think critically and in new ways.”

“While the Governor’s School retains authority to select which seminars will be presented and to set expectations in the manner of presentation, it accords faculty members the freedom and responsibility to craft academic and intellectual experiences that reflect their unique viewpoints and expertise,” according to the policy.

The settlement says any changes to the policy will be consistent with the First Amendment, the North Carolina Declaration of Rights and applicable law.

“Dr. Phillips was beloved, respected, and well-regarded by both students and faculty as an advocate for students who felt that their voices weren’t being heard and their perspectives weren’t welcomed at the Governor’s School,” said Frampton, Phillips’ attorney.

“We’re pleased to favorably settle this case on his behalf. Now, the Governor’s School’s policy rightly respects teachers’ freedom of speech, which greatly benefits all students and families.”