The St. Paul Public Schools are asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the school district discriminated and retaliated against a black teacher who was critical of discipline policies.
The district says Aaron Benner has failed to prove he was a victim of adverse action by the district when he resigned in August 2015.
Benner, then a veteran elementary school teacher, left the district for a charter school position after a series of personnel investigations during the 2014-15 school year — moves he argued were payback for his claims that the district failed to hold black students accountable for disruptive behavior.
"The district retaliated against me and got caught, plain and simple," Benner said Monday in response to the district's motion, which he called "comical."
Soon after he resigned, Benner filed a complaint with the city's human rights department, which found in his favor. But efforts to negotiate a settlement failed, and Benner filed suit in U.S. District Court in May. The school district responded on Monday with its motion to dismiss.
In its filing, the district argues that Benner failed to show the district "deliberately created intolerable working conditions with the intention of forcing [him] to quit." Nor had it given him any indication "that termination of his employment was even suggested," the motion states.
A federal appeals court has set a high bar for what constitutes a "racially hostile work environment," and Benner's argument falls short, the district argues.
"Benner provides no factual basis for inferring that anything done by the district toward him was motivated by race," the motion states. "He does not allege that anyone ever insulted his race, or even commented or alluded to his race."
