By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Related Press
A Pennsylvania college district violated a trainer’s constitutional rights by falsely suggesting he took half within the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, a federal jury has concluded.
After an 11-day trial, jurors discovered the Allentown Faculty District retaliated in opposition to Jason Moorehead when it suspended him after the lethal revolt within the nation’s capital and asserted he “was concerned within the electoral school protest that occurred at america Capitol Constructing.”
Though Moorehead was in Washington, D.C., to attend Donald Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally, he mentioned he by no means acquired nearer than a mile to the Capitol and was not among the many rioters who stormed the constructing. He has by no means been charged with against the law.
Moorehead, who taught center college social research, mentioned particular person college board members later orchestrated a public smear marketing campaign in opposition to him despite the fact that his instructing report was spotless, claiming they acted out of “ideological hatred.” He mentioned the ordeal has destroyed his popularity and ended his instructing profession.
Jurors selected Friday that the district — one of many largest within the state with greater than 16,000 college students — ought to pay Moorehead $125,000 for financial damages. The jury additionally discovered that college board member Lisa Conover and former board president Nancy Wilt acted “maliciously or wantonly,” ordering Conover to pay $6,000 in punitive damages and Wilt to pay $500.
One of many college district’s legal professionals, Shorav Kaushik, mentioned in a short assertion Thursday that “the district respects the jury’s verdict and is contemplating its authorized choices. It’s wanting ahead to persevering with its mission to serve the Allentown neighborhood and the wants of its college students and households.”
He mentioned the district’s portion of the damages will probably be coated by its insurance coverage firm, whereas Conover and Wilt will probably be answerable for paying punitive damages. Conover and Wilt didn’t reply to requests for remark Wednesday and Thursday.
Moorehead, a Seattle native with 17 years of expertise within the Allentown district, calls himself a conservative Republican and Trump supporter, however mentioned he stored his politics to himself as a trainer in a metropolis the place Democrats predominate. Allentown, a various, city district about an hour north of Philadelphia, is the one place he has ever taught.
He has not returned to the classroom in Allentown or anyplace else, saying that may be very troublesome until the district points an apology.
The jury verdict “is an effective begin,” Moorehead mentioned in a telephone interview. “But it surely’s nonetheless leaving me wanting extra accountability from the varsity district to really clear my title in the neighborhood. … The neighborhood wants to listen to from the district that I did nothing incorrect and that I’m protected to return to a instructing surroundings.”
Francis Malofiy, certainly one of Moorehead’s legal professionals, vowed to “actually put the screws to the district, put the screws to these board members, and demand that they put out a proper apology and proper this report.”
It wasn’t forthcoming as of Thursday. Requested about an apology and a retraction, Kaushik, the district’s lawyer, mentioned: “As of now the district doesn’t intend to make any additional statements relating to this matter.”
At trial, proof confirmed the district’s lawyer and PR agency suggested district officers to concern a short assertion a couple of trainer having been in Washington. As an alternative, prime district officers signed off on a “longer, detailed false assertion with out even talking with Jason,” mentioned AJ Fluehr, one other of Moorehead’s legal professionals.
The district had additionally discovered fault with a number of of Moorehead’s social media posts concerning the occasions of Jan. 6. At one level, Moorehead posted a selfie of himself on Fb in a “Make America Nice Once more” hat and carrying a Revolutionary Warfare-era flag, captioning it: “Doing my civic obligation!” Moorehead additionally shared a put up that mentioned: “Don’t fear everybody the capitol is insured,” appending his personal one-word remark: “This.”
The district instructed Moorehead that his posts had been “distasteful, insensitive, thoughtless, inconsiderate, uncaring.”
Moorehead’s swimsuit mentioned college district and prime officers retaliated in opposition to him based mostly on his protected speech, and the choose instructed jurors that his rally attendance, Fb posts and political leanings had been protected by the First Modification.
“You continue to have the appropriate to meeting, and you’ve got a proper to free speech, and you may’t cancel that out,” Malofiy mentioned. “Faculty board members tried to silence and cancel Jason Moorehead. It got here again to hang-out them.”
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