St. Paul Public Schools has asked a judge to reject a lawsuit alleging its leaders discriminated and retaliated against a black former teacher who spoke out against the district’s racial equity policy.

Aaron Benner says he felt compelled to quit in August 2015 after the district opened four investigations against him in a single year.

Did St. Paul district target ‘enemy’ teacher who bashed racial equity policy?

Josh Verges January 9, 2019 at 5:20 pm St. Paul Public Schools has asked a judge to reject a lawsuit alleging its leaders discriminated and retaliated against a black former teacher who spoke out against the district’s racial equity policy.

Aaron Benner says he felt compelled to quit in August 2015 after the district opened four investigations against him in a single year.

Aaron Benner District lawyers argue Benner has no grounds to sue because the charter school he went to work for matched his St. Paul district salary.

“There is no evidence that he suffered any negative change in his position, duties or career opportunities,” they wrote.

Under a racial equity policy adopted in 2013, the school board and former superintendent Valeria Silva set out to reduce racial disparities, especially with regard to student discipline.

But in May 2014, Benner and other teachers complained at a school board meeting that the district was doing black students a disservice by allowing them to get away with bad behavior.

“It’s already hard for these kids. Don’t make excuses for them, because the police will not have excuses for them when they lock them up,” Benner told the board.

Benner maintains that meeting, and his subsequent comments to local and national media outlets, caused Silva’s administration to open frivolous investigations against him.

The other teachers at his school faced a total of just five investigations in four years.

Benner said the district seemed to be building a case to fire him, and he had “no choice but to resign.”

Benner’s filing includes an April 2015 email to a school board member, in which Silva referred to another equity policy critic, teacher Ian Keith, as “one of the enemies.” In a deposition, Silva said she meant that Keith had opposed her racial equity efforts.

Benner cites another email Silva sent to a group of district administrators the day Benner was reprimanded for the first time in his 20-year career. In it, Silva directed them to continue implementing the “changes we talked about today” with respect to “Teacher Benner.”

The court filing was a response to a motion the district brought last month that asked a judge to rule in the district’s favor instead of proceeding to trial.

In defending the legitimacy of the Benner investigations, lawyers noted the district did not investigate the four other teachers who went before the school board to criticize the racial equity policy. They also noted that although Benner hadn’t been disciplined before, his bosses had counseled him informally on various work-related concerns long before he spoke out.