A Maryland teacher is about to receive a hefty payout after a court ordered a school board to pony up half a million dollars for defaming him as a racist.
The lawsuit came after an incident in which some Black students accused teacher Dan Engler of making a racist comment in the classroom, according to Fox News.
A Maryland county school board was ordered to pay half a million dollars in damages to a teacher who was accused of racism in a school-wide email.
A Montgomery County Circuit Court jury returned a verdict last week finding the Montgomery County School Board defamed Dan Engler, a former Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) English teacher. The court awarded Engler damages of $500,000, plus $18,000 in prejudgment interest for a total of $518,000, according to Bethesda Today.
The case centered around a 2023 incident in Engler’s classroom involving two Black students who refused to sit in their assigned seats. The students reported the encounter to the assistant principal afterward, alleging that Engler told them he would not be able to tell them apart from other students, believing this to be a racial comment.
Two days after the incident, the school principal, Shelton Mooney, sent a school-wide email to staff, parents, and students reporting that a "hate bias incident" had occurred at the school.
However, it was later revealed that Engler had not made this comment. Instead, he stated that he wanted to keep students in their assigned seats to help him learn their names.
The lawsuit alleged that Mooney defamed him by sending out the email claiming he was guilty of displaying a “hate bias” without first informing Engler and allowing him to explain what actually happened, Bethesda Today reported. The email did not name Engler, but he was “readily identifiable” because of the immediate backlash from the community.
Engler’s attorney insisted that Mooney fabricated the inflammatory quote. He alleged the principal “made up the quote in the community letter that alleged Engler said he would be unable to tell African American students apart.”
The teacher’s attorneys also pointed out that Mooney had applied a double standard because he did not adhere to hate-bias protocols in prior incidents, such as when “students [reported] concerns of antisemitism following a teacher’s comments in 2022.”
The district’s legal team argued that the administrators followed the correct procedure by interviewing students, speaking with supervisors, and having at least nine officials review the email before sending it out.
One of the attorneys contended that the email was meant to tell “the gist of the situation” without giving specifics. He claimed the email was not defamatory because “the statement in the email was substantially true.”
The district’s attorneys also stressed that the email was sent because “many may have assumed the school was attempting to cover up the issue.”
Still, the teacher testified that the email “publicly humiliated him, destroyed his reputation and his relationship with students” while costing him his coaching position.
Several students gave differing testimonies. One said the teacher had not made any racist remarks. Another claimed he referenced race.
This appears to be the right ruling, from where I sit. I remember plenty of teachers in high school making sure we sat in the right seats — especially during the beginning of the school year — to make sure they would learn our names. Engler clearly wasn’t implying that all Black people look alike.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what leftist race-baiting has wrought in America.
In many ways, the left has created an environment in which everyone is so sensitive about racial issues that some are quick to label someone as racist over nonsense. Even further, others are forced to walk on eggshells because they never know when they might accidentally say something that another finds bigoted.
This is not happening in a microcosm. As long as the left is able to use government-run schools to enforce their racial, sexual, and gender ideology through education, they will eventually create a society in which people find it harder to voice their views without fear of repercussions. It's good that Engler fought back instead of allowing the district to railroad him. But far too many would be cowed into remaining silent. Hopefully, this changes.
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