BY GQ PAN |Epoch Times
Stock
photo of a classroom. (Pexels)
A Massachusetts high school football coach claims in a
First Amendment lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns with elements
of critical race theory in his daughter’s 7th grade
history class.
David Flynn, who has been heading the football program at
Dedham High School since 2011, sued the district and school leadership,
alleging that he was removed from his position in retaliation for expressing
political disagreements.
According to Judicial Watch, a conservative legal organization that
filed the lawsuit on behalf of Flynn, those political disagreements became an
issue when Flynn and his wife emailed a list of concerns about their daughter’s
world geography and ancient history class to members of the Dedham School
Committee.
Their concerns include, among others, a history teacher
using an avatar of herself wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt for her online
classroom, and class assignments instructing students to identify police
officers as a “risk” to black people and black males as a “risk” to white
people. The couple eventually removed their two children from the school
district and sent them to a nearby Catholic school in October.
“The instruction their daughter was receiving in ‘World
Geography and Ancient History I’ was unrelated to the ancient history and world
geography subjects described on the Dedham Public Schools website,” the lawsuit
(pdf) alleges. “Instead, the instruction concerned issues of
race, gender, stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, and politics.”
In January, Flynn was called to a meeting, where the
district superintendent handed him a copy of one of the emails he sent to the
committee members, and told him that the district had decided to not renew his
football coach contract. In a statement released shortly after the meeting, the
district and school officials said Flynn was fired because he “expressed
significant philosophical differences with the direction, goals, and values of
the school district.”
“As a district, we actively try to encourage our staff
and students to give constructive voice to their opinions, but must also ensure
we stay true to our overarching mission and vision for the district,” the
statement read.
Supporters of Flynn, including parents, past and current
students, and football players, have protested against the decision. A former
football player at Dedham High told local ABC affiliate WCVB that the coach was very well-liked among
students.
“Coach Flynn is an awesome guy and we’re all devastated
that they fired him,” the student said during a demonstration calling for
Flynn’s reinstatement.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said in a
statement that the firing of Flynn is a manifestation of “cancel
culture.”
“Cancel culture has come to high school football,” said
Fitton. “Coach Flynn was fired for exercising his constitutional rights to
object as a citizen and father to an extremist and racially inflammatory school
curriculum in his child’s history class.”
