A federal judge has approved a $269,218 settlement award to the former CEO of an Indianapolis, Indiana, school who contended that he was wrongfully terminated.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Brookman approved the agreed judgment last week in favor of Nathan Tuttle, says his law firm, Goodin Abernathy. Tuttle was CEO of the Edison School of the Arts until March 2023 when he was fired after using a racial slur in front of students.
WRTV-TV reports that Tuttle conceded in his lawsuit that he said the n-word, but said he was only repeating what a student had said to emphasize that the word was in violation of the school’s Code of Conduct.
“This judgment affirms what we have maintained from the outset: that Mr. Tuttle was treated unfairly and in violation of his civil rights,” said a statement from Goodin Abernathy.
While monitoring a hallway during a passing period in March 2023, Tuttle overheard an 8th grade Black student use the n-word when speaking to classmates, the lawsuit states.
Tuttle reprimanded the student and told the student to report to the Guided Learning Center as punishment. The lawsuit says the student repeatedly questioned Tuttle: “What did I say, Mr. Tuttle?”
“Asked a direct question, Tuttle provided a direct answer: He repeated the word while emphasizing that use of the word, in any of its forms, was in violation of the School’s Code of Conduct,” read the lawsuit.
Tuttle contends in the lawsuit that certain Edison administration, teachers and staff members organized a student protest in which students chanted homophobic slurs and other insults at Tuttle.
Tuttle is a gay White man. He and his husband have two adopted children, one of which is Black, according to the lawsuit.
“The Board terminated Tuttle—in violation of his contract, without just cause, and without due process—at the pinnacle of his career and in a manner fraught with discrimination and career-destroying falsehoods,” the lawsuit asserted.
Edison belongs to the Indianapolis Public Schools’ Innovation Network, which gives its schools more autonomy in hiring and operational decisions than district-managed schools, Chalkbeat Indiana reports. Edison is not a charter school, but is governed by a nonprofit and its own school board.
