America First Legal Sues Colorado School District for Illegally Retaliating Against School Leader After He Expressed His Views on Race During a Mandatory Diversity Training Session

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against the Cherry Creek School District and its senior administrative officials for violating the First Amendment by retaliating against an employee by eliminating his position after he expressed his personal views on race during a mandatory diversity training session. 

AFL’s client is a seasoned educator who served as the Dean of Students at Campus Middle School in Cherry Creek School District in Colorado from 2021 to 2024. This year, the school district pressured him to embrace race-based ideologies and punished him when he refused to comply. 

In January, AFL’s client participated in a district-mandated training program on race and equity run by Pacific Educational Group (PEG) called “Courageous Conversations.” 

AFL previously released documents obtained through separate litigation in Pennsylvania in 2022 that showed that “Courageous Conversations” sought to implement critical race theory to transform school leadership and force white staff members to recognize the problem of their “whiteness.” These documents included slides used in “Courageous Conversations” training that centered around race-based concepts from “What is Whiteness?” to “What does it mean to be white?” and “Understanding whiteness in a white context.” 

At the beginning of the “Courageous Conversations” training that AFL’s client attended this year, program facilitators assured participants that all comments would remain confidential and would not impact employment status. During a training breakout session, participants were asked to discuss questions such as “What does it mean to be white?” and “How do you identify?” AFL’s client responded by stating he identifies as an American and believes the United States is the greatest country in the world. 

Immediately following the training, the district’s Equity Director reported AFL’s client’s comments to the school’s principal as having “racist undertones.” 

Despite assurances from the school’s principal that his statements would not result in adverse employment actions, the district informed AFL’s client in March that his position was being eliminated. 

The district cited “budgetary reasons” for eliminating his position—a justification contradictory to its records, which show an increase in staffing allocations for the 2024-2025 school year. Further, when AFL’s client spoke to district officials and expressed that he did not believe their justification for eliminating his position, they placed him on administrative leave for “unprofessional conduct.” 

AFL is committed to protecting the right of every American to speak freely, without fear of retaliation, and combating the divisive, race-based indoctrination in our nation’s education systems. 

Statement from Ian Prior, America First Legal Senior Advisor: 

“As alleged in the complaint, Cherry Creek School District blatantly violated the First Amendment rights of our client when they terminated him because his pride in the United States of America did not align with the district’s political ideology that America is a systemically racist nation. Like other school districts across the country, Cherry Creek has replaced the Bill of Rights with the ‘DEI Manifesto,’ and teachers, students, and parents are being silenced for standing up for the values that make America great. We are proud to stand up for all teachers across America who are being unfairly persecuted for daring to challenge a government-sponsored orthodoxy that teaches hatred of America and seeks to marginalize people based on their viewpoints and the color of their skin, ” said Ian Prior. 

The parties named in this lawsuit are the Cherry Creek School District, the Cherry Creek School District Board of Education, President of Cherry Creek School District Board of Education Angela Garland, Superintendent of Cherry Creek School District Christopher Smith, Director of Middle Schools for Cherry Creek School District Angie Zehner, Director of Human Resources for Cherry Creek School District Courtney Smith, Principal of Campus Middle School Lissa Staal, and Executive Director of Equity, Culture, and Community Engagement for Cherry Creek School District Ronald Garcia y Ortiz. 

Read the complaint here. 

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