By City News Service | Our Weekly Los Angeles
A Black teacher has settled his lawsuit against the Charter Oak Unified School District (COUSD) in which he alleged he was demoted from the rank of principal in 2022 because of his ethnicity as well as in retaliation for complaining about the way he was treated. Peter Pannell’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleged discrimination, retaliation, harassment, failure to investigate and prevent and a violation of the state Labor Code.
On Dec. 2, Pannell’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Kevin Brazile notifying him that the case was resolved, but no terms were divulged. In their previous court papers, the district’s lawyers denied Pannell’s allegations and said they were barred by the statute of limitations.
Pannell, now 62, was hired in July 2018 as principal of Cedargrove Elementary School in Covina, the suit stated. In September 2020, a vice president of the school’s PTA suggested that all students be given materials expressing support for law enforcement officers who had been shot, the suit stated. Pannell angered the vice president by saying that it would be only fair to also educate students on the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom died at the hands of police, the suit stated.
Pannell advised the PTA that both the organization’s proposal and his additional recommendation might be deemed too political to be done at a school, according to the suit.
“Instead of engaging in further discussion, the vice president attacked plaintiff personally and implied plaintiff ‘s political views were putting her child at risk,” the suit filed in April 2022 stated.
That same month, Pannell was criticized by the teacher’s union and the superintendent after issuing a disciplinary report about a White teacher, the suit stated.
Pannell complained to the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services, alleging he was being targeted because of his race, the suit stated. But two months later, the COUSD superintendent questioned Pannell’s disciplining of the teacher, accused him of targeting her and told the plaintiff to rescind the disciplinary report, according to the suit. During a PTA executive meeting in January 2021, Pannell said he believed there were an unfair number of Black students being brought to his office for disciplinary purposes, according to the suit.
Pannell proposed that the teachers engage in training to understand and appreciate different colors and backgrounds, believing that rather than applying a “one-size-fits-all” approach, his ideas could produce more effective solutions to bad student behavior, the suit stated.
“Plaintiff was then openly attacked during the meeting, with multiple participants accusing the plaintiff of being a racist,” the suit stated.
In April 2021, the district’s human resources department began an investigation into Pannell’s complaints of racial discrimination and harassment, but his work environment did not improve and he felt more targeted than ever, the suit stated.
