A federal judge ruled against two teachers who filed the first-in-the-nation lawsuit in August 2021 against a mandatory district-wide "anti-racism" training that occured the prior year.
www.foxnews.com
In the lawsuit, backed by the Southeastern Legal Foundation [SLF], the teachers claimed that the district discriminated against them because of their views that America should be colorblind.
SLF is a nonprofit that has filed numerous lawsuits involving school training, critical race theory, and COVID-19 policies.
The teachers have appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
"This is an effort by a lone agenda-driven federal judge to deny concerned teachers and parents the right to seek redress in court and to protect so-called ‘anti-racist’ training in Missouri’s public schools," SLF General Counsel Kim Hermann said.
"In nearly 50 years of bringing lawsuits under §1983 civil rights law, SLF has never faced attorney fees sanctions for challenging unconstitutional government action at any level. This unprecedented ruling is sure to close the courthouse doors to teachers and parents," SLF Litigation Director Braden Boucek added.
Federal district judge Douglas Harpool awarded $313,000 in attorney fees to the school district defendants, noting that the district should be compensated for the 1,538 hours that its attorneys spent defending the suit.
en.wikipedia.org
Federal judicial service
On August 1, 2013, President
Barack Obama nominated Harpool to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.