College Coach Accused of Racism Allowed to Move Forward With Defamation Case

College Coach Accused of Racism Allowed to Move Forward With Defamation Case

As we have seen repeatedly, lawsuits are an effective way to deal with these situations.

From the Volokh Conspiracy blog at Reason:

College Baseball Coach’s Defamation Case, Alleging School Said He Was Fired Because He Acted in Racist Ways, Allowed to Go Forward

From Judge David Alan Ezra’s decision in Penders v. St. Edward’s Univ. (W.D. Tex.), decided in March but just recently posted to Westlaw; the case has since settled, for an amount that to my knowledge has not been made public:

Penders is a white male who formerly worked as the head baseball coach of SEU from the fall of 2006, until his termination on December 3, 2021. According to Penders, he is the winningest coach in SEU history and was a model employee of SEU.

Prior to the 2020 baseball season, Penders alleges that he recruited Jacques Palmer, a black male, to play baseball at SEU, but the 2020 season was abruptly cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2021 season, according to Penders, Palmer went 0 for 8, but had limited playing time, and his eligibility expired at the end of that season. Palmer asked SEU to petition the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility. SEU apparently made the decision not to do so; Penders alleges that although the decision whether to petition the NCAA for the extra year of eligibility was not up to him, Palmer learned he would not be eligible and decided to make a complaint to SEU accusing Penders of racism and discrimination against Palmer as a black male.

Thereafter, SEU hired an external investigator to investigate Palmer’s allegations. According to Penders, the investigator determined that Penders did not engage in any racist or discriminatory acts and that he had not violated any SEU rule or policy. Despite knowing the outcome of the independent investigation, Penders alleges that SEU and SEU President Montserratt Fuentes (“Fuentes”) worked to conceal the outcome of the investigation and intentionally misled the community in an effort “to falsely portray herself [Fuentes] as fighting … for ‘social justice.'” Penders contends that SEU and Fuentes “deliberately led students, faculty and the community to conclude that Penders had engaged in racist and discriminatory acts even though an external investigator and Fuentes herself concluded precisely the opposite.”

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