Maryland high school teacher awarded half a million in defamation lawsuit over racism allegation

Fox News

2 days ago

A Maryland county school board was ordered to pay half a million dollars in damages to a teacher who was accused of racism in a school-wide email.
A Montgomery County Circuit Court jury returned a verdict last week finding the Montgomery County School Board defamed Dan Engler, a former Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) English teacher. The court awarded Engler damages of $500,000, plus $18,000 in prejudgment interest for a total of $518,000, according to Bethesda Today.
The case centered around a 2023 incident in Engler's classroom involving two Black students who refused to sit in their assigned seats. The students reported the encounter to the assistant principal afterward, alleging that Engler told them he would not be able to tell them apart from other students, believing this to be a racial comment.
Two days after the incident, the school principal, Shelton Mooney, sent a school-wide email to staff, parents, and students reporting that a "hate bias incident" had occurred at the school.
The message said that "several African American students" were told by a teacher that he was "unable to distinguish them from other African American students" in the classroom and that the Montgomery County Police Department had been notified as an internal investigation was ongoing.
"Let me be clear, discrimination of any kind must not be tolerated," Mooney wrote before citing the school policy against "insensitivity, disrespect, bias, verbal abuse, harassment, bullying, physical violence or illegal discrimination toward any person."
Although Engler was not named in the email, he said he was quickly identified by students, parents and colleagues. He maintains that he did not make the statement attributed to him in the letter and "did not do anything that could reasonably be classified as a 'hate bias incident.'"
Engler's lawsuit alleged his reputation was "destroyed" by the email. His lawsuit also claimed that Mooney and the school board violated MCPS policies and procedures by sending the message before an investigation had been completed and that they refused to issue a retraction or apology.
The jury ultimately found the school board liable for defamation, but not Principal Mooney. Mooney reportedly resigned this week and accepted a different position at another MCPS school, according to Bethesda Today.
The school board declined to comment to Fox News Digital. Mooney's lawyer did not return a request for comment.
Ahead of the trial, Engler told Fox News Digital that the experience took a heavy toll on his mental health. The same day, he went on disability leave for a year and a half before resuming teaching at another school in the district.
"I love teaching. I love coaching," he said. "And I really care a great deal about the relationships I have with those kids and helping them learn how to become adults in the best way possible. To lose the confidence of the kids, the trust of the kids, based on what the kids' leadership had to say about me, was devastating. It was identity stealing."
He called the verdict "a tremendous relief."
"[Teachers are] human and are not mistake-free and have good hearts, and they should be treated that way," he told Bethesda Today. "I believe this verdict is an illustration that what I'm saying is true… so that means a great deal to me."