Conn. Teacher Sues District After Being 'White-Shamed'

A teacher in Connecticut filed a lawsuit alleging his school district disciplined him after he voiced opposition to a mandatory educator training that focused on critical race theory and "privilege."

In the federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, John Grande claimed that Hartford Public Schools mandated that staff members attend the "Identity & Privilege" Zoom training in 2020. According to the complaint, the training focused on critical race theory and several forms of "privilege," including race and gender.

"I was targeted for punishment by school district administrators because I refused to endorse their agenda to push critical race theory on teachers," said Grande, who has taught physical education in Hartford schools for 35 years. "They launched a witch hunt against me and ran a kangaroo court to convict me for exercising my free speech rights.

"They threatened my career to silence me, but with this lawsuit, I'm leveling the playing field and forcing school officials to answer for trampling my rights."

According to Grande, the questions that teachers were asked during the mandatory session targeted him for being a heterosexual, white, Christian male.

"If we answered 'yes' to a question, we were a shade in the pie chart," Grande told Crisis in the Classroom. "They were strategically worded in a way where a guy like me would pretty much answer 'yes' to all of them, and each 'yes' answer was, 'OK, you have privilege.'"

Hartford teachers were allegedly separated into breakout discussion groups at the end of the training. Asked for his opinion on the training, Grande said he was going to "sit here quietly" because he was "just man-bashed and white-shamed." He says none of the colleagues in his group reacted negatively to his response.

Grande later completed a survey about the relevance of the training and stated his belief that it was "part of the superintendent's agenda to advance her career."

Grande claims he was placed under investigation three months later for making "inappropriate and aggressive comments." Hartford's school board allegedly mandated that he take part in "sensitivity" training and issued a letter of reprimand after a predisciplinary hearing more than a year later.

"I've been there for 35 years now and to push a training like that on a veteran of that many years who's dedicated and been loyal to this system and the kids is just plain wrong," Grande told Crisis in the Classroom. "And I refuse to be chased out."

By disciplining him for exercising his First Amendment rights, Grande claims that Hartford violated its own employee handbook, which allegedly states that no employee "will be subject of disciplinary action or retaliatory action of any kind as a result of the exercise of his or her free speech rights."

Grande is asking the court to declare the school district officials' behavior unconstitutional under the First Amendment, to rescind the letter of reprimand from his employee file, and to award him compensatory and punitive damages.

In a statement to Crisis in the Classroom, the school district said it "disagree[s] with the allegations included in said lawsuit," but "respect[s] the right for all to seek representation."

"Hartford Public Schools remains committed to creating safe spaces and robust professional learning opportunities regardless of staff background, beliefs or ideology," the district said.

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