White Ex-Principal Sues Gov't for $5 Million, Claiming Black Person Took Her Job
A former principal of an Ann Arbor, Michigan, elementary school is suing the district for racial discrimination, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.
Shannon Blick boasted what her lawyer called a “spotless and pristine employment record” for five years at Lawton Elementary School before being placed on administrative leave in April and effectively forced to resign.
Blick, who is white, alleges that the school district forced her out in order to replace her with Lawton’s black assistant principal.
William Tishkoff, Blick’s attorney, called the case one of reverse discrimination, saying, “White people have rights.”
He said this issue is “very timely in terms of what’s happening in our country.”
Blick’s lawsuit demands $5 million and reinstatement as principal of Lawton, while accusing the school district of a history of “inhibiting and stepping on the civil rights of Caucasian and non-minority administrators when African American and minority administrators covet Caucasian and non-minority administrators’ legitimately earned and obtained positions, seniority, pay, jobs or duties.”
Shannon Blick is accusing school officials of ousting her from the job in favor of black administrators.https://t.co/MoLzEkmVXG
— WXYZ Detroit (@wxyzdetroit) July 23, 2019
According to the suit, rumors circulated that a Lawton janitor was being investigated for overbilling the district around $25,000, and Blick was threatened that she might be implicated. She says she was told that the rumored investigation could be dropped if she quietly resigned, MLive.com reported.
Ann Arbor police told MLive they didn’t have a report about any overbilling at Lawton. The school district has declined to comment on both the overbilling investigation and Blick’s lawsuit.
Regardless of the outcome of this suit, it is an ugly situation.
Identity politics has become a blot on our society, pushing individual merit aside in favor of race, gender or other characteristics.
In this nation we should hold individuals responsible for their actions and respect their liberty, not judge them based on their arbitrary group identities.
If we begin to primarily identify as members of groups instead of unique individuals, we eschew all responsibility and agency for selves. If we are merely representatives for our races, anything anyone of our race does, past or present, reflects back on us.
We should be fighting against fundamentally altering our country like this, but the movement is sadly taking shape.
America is unique in that it is a country defined not only by location but by an idea. The philosophy of identity politics spits in the face of a great nation founded on the principle of individual liberty.
Instances of racism and false accusations of racism have similar effects in that they drive wedges between individuals based on group identity.
If it turns out that Blick was forced out because the school district wanted to replace a white principal with a black one, that would be egregious.
It would be similarly awful if she was rightfully terminated and tried to use race as an excuse.
At this point, we simply don’t know enough.
The one thing we do know is that the damage has been done.
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