North Carolina Public School Officials ‘Unlawfully’ Fired Professor For Opposing ‘Racially Divisive Ideology,’ Lawsuit Alleges
Alexa Schwerha on December 19, 2022
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction “unlawfully” fired Dr. David Phillips from its Governor’s School in 2021 for opposing “racially divisive ideology,” a lawsuit filed by the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, who represents Phillips, alleged Monday.
The Governor’s School, a publicly funded summer program for advanced high school students, fired Phillips after he delivered “three optional seminars” which opposed “critical theory” and “the increasing bias and lack of viewpoint diversity in higher education,” ADF said in a press release. After the lectures, “a group of students and staff members reacted with open hostility, referencing race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion in their comments and questions,” ADF claimed.
Phillips reportedly stayed after the lecture to answer the questions and offered to meet the students at a later time, but was fired the day after the last seminar, according to ADF’s lawsuit.
Critical theory, also known as Critical Race Theory, holds that America is systemically racist, and teaches people to consider social interactions in terms of race. Its adherents pursue antiracism by forgoing merit-based policies in favor of race-based policies.
“In an academic environment committed to exploring a wide range of differing viewpoints, as the Governor’s School claims to be, no teacher should be fired for offering a reasoned critique of critical theory. But that’s what happened to Dr. Phillips,” ADF Senior Counsel Hal Frampton wrote in the press release.
UPDATE: ADF filed suit on behalf of an NC Governor’s School professor who was fired without any explanation after he spoke out about the harms of the racially divisive ideology embraced by the school.
The school’s action was a clear #freespeech violation.
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) December 19, 2022
Phillips taught at the Governor’s School for eight summers and was “well-respected” as an English professor, according to ADF. The legal organization alleged the school violated Phillips’ right to free speech by terminating his employment and acted in retaliation.
“There is no lawful explanation for the way North Carolina public school officials treated Dr. Phillips,” Frampton wrote. “He was beloved, respected, and 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. By firing him, the Governor’s School violated his constitutional right to free speech and unlawfully retaliated against him for deviating from the Governor’s School’s ideological orthodoxy.”
ADF, Phillips, the Governor’s School and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, which was listed as a defendant, did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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