News Update

Former teacher in San Gabriel Valley awarded $25 million in retaliation suit

A former teacher in Bassett Unified in Los Angeles County was awarded nearly $25 million in a lawsuit claiming the district wrongfully terminated him in 2019, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The teacher, who is Black, claimed the district fired him in retaliation for a previous suit he brought related to racial discrimination, as well as for an incident in 2017 when he spoke out about a district custodian who had been charged with sexual misconduct involving students at a middle school, the newspaper reported.

In the first lawsuit, which settled in 2017, the teacher claimed that the district failed to take action after students who called him the “N-word” and other racial slurs, and wrongfully disciplined him for calling the sheriff — instead of district security — when a student threatened violence.

The district claimed that the teacher was terminated for leaving school early on the last day of summer school in 2017, according to the newspaper.