NC agency settles with teacher who was fired for opposing critical race theory
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by a teacher who was fired for telling students about his opposition to critical race theory.
David Phillips worked for the North Carolina Governor’s School, an optional summer program for academically advanced high school students, until his firing in 2021. He sued, claiming the school wrongfully fired him for expressing his opinions in a series of seminars that received negative feedback from students and fellow teachers.
“They attacked whiteness, maleness, heterosexuality and Christianity,” Phillips wrote in his original legal complaint.
Critical race theory is an academic theory that examines the role race plays in society, particularly in how laws are applied to different groups. It’s typically only studied in certain graduate school or law school courses, although some critics have used it as short-hand to refer to any discussion of race at any level of schooling.
The lawsuit was dismissed by Phillips after he and the DPI, which oversees the state’s public schools, reached a settlement agreement, according to a document filed Thursday in Wake County Superior Court. The DPI is run by Superintendent of Public Instruction Cathy Truitt, a Republican.
DPI officials didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Terms of the settlement were not publicly available in court documents. Phillips’ lawyers at the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom said Phillips received compensation from the Governor’s School as part of the settlement. The total wasn’t disclosed.
“Teachers shouldn’t be fired for fostering intellectual diversity on campus," Phillips’ lawyer Hal Frampton said in an ADF news release. "A good education includes providing students with a wide range of differing viewpoints to explore.”
