RALEIGH — A fired Charlotte-area charter school teacher has filed a lawsuit alleging he was dismissed over a book he used in class, Critical Race Theory accusations and racial discrimination.
The lawsuit was filed by Markayle Gray, a black teacher who was hired in October 2022 by Charlotte Secondary Academy to teach English classes.
Gray is seeking economic damages of back pay, front pay and lost benefits as well as noneconomic compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation.
In the filing, Gray alleges “racial discrimination” in his firing from the Charlotte Secondary School, a public charter school, after using a book called “Dear Martin” written by Nic Stone.
The book was objected to by parents in January 2023 for its use of excessive racial slurs, profane language and divisive racial themes that some, including Gray in his filing, have linked to Critical Race Theory.
A review of an online copy of “Dear Martin” 13 uses of the F-word as well as various other curse words. Racial slurs also appear at least nine times in the book. As an example, page 89 of the book uses several obscenities along with racial slurs.
In chapter five, one of the characters comes up with an idea for the other characters to dress up as “stereotypes” that include a “thug,” a “token Black man,” a “yuppie/politician,” a “surfer dude,” a “redneck” and a “Klansman.” Additionally, references are made to a gang called “Black Jihad.”
The passage reads, “Bros,” he said, “let’s all dress as different stereotypes for Halloween, and then go out together. It’ll be this massive political statement about racial equality and broken barriers and s—.”
“Dear Martin” has already been pulled in at least one North Carolina district, Haywood County. According to that district’s Superintendent, Bill Nolte, the intended educational purpose of the book “was being diminished by the way it was written, by the amount of profanity and innuendo.”
In the month following the book objections, on Feb. 2, the school’s principal Keisha Rock, who is also black, allegedly informed Gray he was being terminated immediately.
Gray claims he was told he was being terminated over complaints about his use of “Dear Martin” and teaching biased content on race. However, the school has indicated his employment contract was subject to renewal on an annual basis and that his termination “was based on legitimate, nondiscriminatory, non-retaliatory reasons.”
Gray held a North Carolina teaching license in the area of English 9-12 that was issued for just a two-year period from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022.
According to the lawsuit, this past March, Gray filed a racial discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC later issued a letter to Gray that said the matter was investigated but the EEOC would not pursue a case against the school, but the letter also authorized Gray to file a legal challenge.
The lawsuit makes other claims such as white teachers not facing firing or discipline for “lessons that conveyed their views on politically polarizing topics from race to gender and sexual orientation without encountering corrective action or discipline from the school’s administration.”
Gray’s lawsuit also accused a white student of making racist comments to nonwhite students and that same student “openly violated school policies by using a cell phone to take pictures of audio-visual and written instructional materials in Gray’s classroom.” Gray says the school did not discipline the student but claims black students had received discipline for the same infraction.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction has refuted one of the key claims made by Gray.
The claim states, “The Principal of Charlotte Secondary, Keisha Rock, has acknowledged in conversations after Gray’s termination that she also feared pressure from North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction (‘DPI’), in that she knew a complaint had been circulated to DPI that a teacher at the school was teaching “Critical Race Theory”. As Rock related it, “it was him [Gray] or me.”
“We have no record of this complaint,” NC DPI Communications Director Blair Rhoades told North State Journal in an email. “However, if we did, it would be considered a confidential personnel record as it relates to school employees and would therefore not be subject to public disclosure. Again, though, our agency has no record of this complaint.”
