Quite simply, the disclosures merely allowed the plaintiff to demonstrate to the jury the full scope of his damages resulting from the defendant's discriminatory discharge decision. Craig HECHT, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. NATIONAL HERITAGE ACADEMIES, INC., Defendant–Appellant. Wood, M. (2011). This means that people on the school board have an incentive to not fire NHA, because otherwise, they would be out of a job and the school might close. 88. In fact, defendant argued, plaintiff even admitted that he was aware of no other instance of a teacher making a racial or racist remark in a classroom in the presence of children. Because the trial court permitted the jury to base these future damages on the mandatory disclosures, contrary to MCL 380.1230b(3) (“An employer ․ that discloses information under this section in good faith is immune from civil liability for the disclosure.”), this award cannot stand as a matter of law. Rent, Katy, "Going to the Head of the Class," Grand Rapids Business Journal, November 19, 2001, p. 3. When people on the boards of several charter schools under NHA questioned the spending and wanted a new arrangement, they were removed and/or their schools were threatened with closure (Wood, 2011). at 6–7. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U.S. 711, 716; 103 S. Ct 1478; 75 L. Ed 2d 403 (1983) ( “There will seldom be ‘eyewitness' testimony as to the employer's mental processes.”); Kline v. Tennessee Valley Auth, 128 F3d 337, 348 (CA 6, 1997) (“It is the rare situation when direct evidence of discrimination is readily available, thus victims of employment discrimination are permitted to establish their cases through inferential and circumstantial proof.”). These lay dictionaries do not define “civil liability.”. Retreived from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/why-is-this-charter-schoo_b_5397059.html. 32. So you would agree that the fact that Craig is white and the fact that the other jokesters were African–American, that was a factor that Caine–Smith seemed to be considering, right? NHA schools served a greater percentage of people from these populations than the surrounding district did. Arguably, this release form would preclude plaintiff from receiving any remuneration from defendant for the disclosures. The findings of this report are based on analysis of information from a variety of sources, including information distributed by the NHA itself on their website and journalistic articles. National Heritage Academies: A Case Study of For-Profit Educational Management Organizations; by Brian Pok, Clare Carroll, Denzell Jobson, Eliza Scruton. 85. [Plaintiff's Counsel ]: Okay. Hannay v. Transp. In fact, plaintiff had already been suspended pending the remainder of defendant's investigation before he allegedly tried to interfere with the investigation by contacting Bell and Code. In general, NHA’s claims that they boast high academic achievement in their schools hold water, but there may be underlying causes. They are authorized by state-approved institutions such as universities and school boards, and therefore have no geographic boundaries. At first, plaintiff confirmed to Weaver the general discussion about white and brown tables, but he denied that he meant anything racial by his statements. Sutcher, L., Darling-Hammond, L., & Carver-Thomas, D. (2016). Some reviews from teachers on the website Glassdoor emphasized the lack of consistency in the discipline policies and the expectations for the students (Glassdoor, 2017). A legislative decision completely to preclude liability necessarily precludes damages on that same basis. NHA is an EMO that was founded in 1995 by billionaire J. C. Huizenga. Furthermore, each student is assigned an advocate beginning in middle school who provides step-by-step guidance for high school academic and enrollment requirements. (quotation marks omitted). Disclosing the plaintiff's unprofessional conduct did not create additional legal responsibility for which the defendant was on the hook; rather, it was the alleged illegal act of discharging the plaintiff based on his race that gave rise to all the defendant's liability, i.e., its legal responsibility arising from a wrongful action. Unwin also claimed that plaintiff called her later that day and stated that he could not even remember saying anything about brown tables burning, and then justified his conduct by reference to racial banter he suggested was regularly engaged in by black teachers at LCA. The testimony of defendant's witnesses contained numerous inconsistencies. This conflict of interest ultimately forces NHA-owned schools to comply with NHA’s demands, which therefore indirectly serve NHA’s shareholders and arguably causes harm toward a student’s education. Defendant points out several factors that arguably distinguish plaintiff's conduct from that of other employees, notably that plaintiff's joke was told in a classroom full of students, which certainly raised the prospect that they might hear it, regardless of whether they actually did.