Fired Harmony Charter Teacher Wasn’t Discriminated Against

Ruling: A civil rights lawsuit filed by an African American charter school teacher who claimed she was fired after her principal denied the teacher’s request that her school hold a Black History Month parade is dismissed. Doreatha Walker v. Harmony Public Schools (also known as Cosmos Foundation), No. 22-20260. Issued Feb. 22 by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (ordered “not published”).

A Non-Discriminatory Reason
A three-member Fifth Circuit panel, in this unanimous decision, upheld the dismissal of Walker’s discrimination claim by a federal district judge on a finding that Harmony Public Schools (Harmony) established that Walker was fired due to a non-discriminatory reason: because she had created “a toxic work environment by being confrontational and threatening — with the effect of bullying her co-workers.”

Background
The record reflects that Harmony hired Walker, who is an African American woman, in 2018 as a science teacher. In late February 2019, Walker began efforts to celebrate Black History Month with a parade at her school.

Her school’s principal told Walker that due to student testing, the school did not have time for a parade that year. Walker then filed a grievance against the principal.

The next day, the principal called a meeting with all teachers involved in the parade. While Walker voiced her concerns, she was told about other avenues of celebrating Black History Month, including the alternative of hanging posters in the school.

Walker accused the principal of calling the meeting in response to her grievance the prior day. Grievances were then filed against Walker. The record does not reflect who filed the grievances against Walker.

Harmony then placed Walker on paid leave while they investigated the grievances. Walker returned to work two days later.

Thereafter, the charter school received additional grievances regarding Walker. These grievances stated that other teachers felt harassed and alleged that Walker was creating a hostile work enviornment.

Harmony placed Walker on leave for a second time while they investigated the grievances made by and against Walker.

As a result of the investigation, the area superintendent recommended firing Walker, stating that she was “unnecessarily confrontational, threatening, and with the intent/effect of bullying and intimating coworkers” and that the conduct “created a toxic environment, which was unacceptable” to the school.

Harmony formally fired Walker on April 12, 2019, listing “misconduct” as the reason for termination.

Walker filed a federal lawsuit against Harmony, claiming violations of several provisions of civil rights laws. She appealed to the Fifth Circuit only her claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (racial discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation).

This Fifth Circuit decision affirmed the dismissal of Walker’s claims by the federal judge on findings that she did not meet the minimum requirements to prove discrimination under Title VII.

The justices noted, for instance, that although Walker subjectively felt bullied and harassed, the record contained no evidence that she was subjected to race-based comments, slurs or derogatory remarks.

The justices also dismissed, as insufficient, Walker’s claim that a similarly situated White teacher accused of misconduct was treated more favorably than she was.

The justices concluded that the evidence entitled Harmony to the dismissal of her lawsuit.