School district sued for firing worker who said U.S. is ‘greatest country in the world’

A leftist school district, in the news in years past for contracting with a company that allowed students to access pornography through its web portals, now is facing a charge it violated the constitutional speech rights of a worker.

American First Legal announced it is suing the Cherry Creek School District in federal court in Colorado for “retaliating against an employee” after he stated he “identifies as an American who believes the U.S. is the greatest country in the world.”

The comment came during one of those notorious “diversity training” schemes often used by schools to promote leftist ideologies, like the now-popular “diversity, equity and inclusion” campaigns that use race as the sole reason for making decisions.

AFL explained the case was prompted by the termination of Patrick Hogarty, formerly the dean of students at Campus Middle School in the Cherry Creek District. Defendants are the district and its officials.

They are accused of trying to force him to “embrace race-based ideologies” during a mandatory “training.”

“During the January 18, 2024 training, Hogarty reportedly responded to a question about his experience being a white U.S. citizen by saying he ‘identifies as an American who believes the U.S. is the greatest country in the world,'” the lawsuit said.

So the school’s “equity” chief claimed, in a complaint to the principal, that the comment included “racist undertones.”

In short order, the school eliminated Hogarty’s position and then put him on administration leave for “unprofessional conduct” when he protested, then fired him.

“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 systematically 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,” explained Ian Prior, AFL senior adviser.

AFL pointed out that the “training” scheme was from Pacific Educational Group, and the legal team previously revealed that organization’s “Courageous Conversations” plan was “trying to implement critical race theory” to change school leadership and force white staff members to recognize their “whiteness” as a problem.

CRT is an extremist ideology that teaches everything about America is racist.

AFL reported, “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.'” the legal team said.

The report also noted the school’s claim the position was eliminated for “budgetary reasons” was contradicted by its own records.

“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,” Prior explained.

The parties named in this lawsuit are the Cherry Creek School District, the Cherry Creek School District Board of Education, board president Angela Garland, Supt. Christopher Smith, Angie Zehner, Courtney Smith, Lissa Staal, and the “equity” executive, Ronald Garcia y Ortiz.

The district previously was in the news when it used a company to provide database resources to students, and that company was sued for including pornography embedded in computer files.

The outside company was sued for violating Colorado’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act for boasting its products are age-appropriate.

The district ultimately dropped its contract with that company after an uprising by parents.

A report from the nonprofit organization MassResistance said children attending middle schools in the district had been provided “access to extremely graphic sexual and homosexual pornography, material encouraging them to become sexually and homosexually active, descriptions of ‘sex toys,’ and much more.”