Black Iowa Teacher Reaches Breaking Point After Students Repeatedly Subject Him to Racist Abuse. School’s Response Leads to $425K Verdict

A Black special education teacher in Iowa won a $425,000 judgment after a jury determined that his school district and two senior administrators failed to address repeated racial harassment by students.

Robert Bender, who taught at Evans Middle School in Ottumwa, Iowa, alleged that students called him the N-word repeatedly during the 2021-22 school year. He said incidents happened nearly every week while he was teaching students with behavioral disabilities.

Bender accused Ottumwa Community School District, principal Jerry Miller and assistant principal Dana Warnecke of not doing enough to discipline the students involved. He said the school used harsher measures for other behavior problems, including profanity or physical aggression, rather than racial harassment.

The teacher originally sought $3 million in damages for racial harassment, discrimination and retaliation. He later dropped his discrimination and retaliation claims. He wanted to litigate his hostile work environment allegations at trial.

Teacher Reportedly Faced Repeated Racial Abuse Despite Complaints To School Officials

Bender joined the Ottumwa Community School District in July 2021 as a special education teacher and behavior instructor at Evans Middle School. He also coached the school’s junior varsity boys’ basketball team.

His lawsuit claims that racial harassment began within months of him joining the institution. In September 2021, a student called him a racial slur. A second student did it two weeks later, but several colleagues saw it happening and did nothing.

Bender brought the matter to Miller and Warnecke’s attention. The administrators suspended one of the students for half a day or a full day, according to the complaint.

However, the harassment continued over the next few months. Students reportedly used the same racial slur against Bender in front of colleagues, administrators and other students.

The teacher also received sticky notes with racist messages on them. He reported the incidents to school administrators and eventually contacted the district executive director of human resources, David Harper, who told him such behavior would not be tolerated.

The lawsuit said the lack of discipline “encouraged students to continue their behavior.”

“Unfortunately, the lack of discipline emboldened the students and they continued to call Mr. Bender an N-word in front of staff and administration,” the complaint said.

One student was said to have been given a timeout for using the slur but kept on spitting it at Bender during the punishment because the teacher had to watch him.

Another incident occurred in March 2022 when a sixth-grade student used the racial slur against Bender at the bus stop in front of school employees and parents. The student repeated it the next day in front of the principal.

Bender recorded the incident but alleged that the school didn’t remove the student from his classroom or take disciplinary action.

Miller said he heard the student use the slur. At his deposition, Miller explained why he sent the student home at the end of the school day: “With BD students, each day is a fresh start, not carrying over what happened the day before.”

School District Disputed Allegations Before Jury Awarded Teacher $425,000

The school district and the two administrators contested Bender’s claims. They said working with middle school students with behavioral disabilities required a different style of discipline.

In a court filing, the defendants said Bender had taken the job “knowing students might exhibit challenging behaviors and use offensive language.”

The district also said it hadn’t ignored his complaints. It had coached him, provided character education and instructional support, sometimes removed students from his classroom and used suspensions, among other things.

The defendants said they did not automatically suspend students but provided positive behavioral support. They also cited the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which calls for efforts to keep students with behavior disorders in school.

Bender, however, argued that the school’s disciplinary decisions were not consistent. He submitted records of discipline for seven students in his class and said some received less severe consequences than others for using racial slurs and other misconduct.

One student who allegedly used the N-word was suspended out of school for fighting, profanity, running in hallways, defiance, disrespect, insubordination and truancy. But his disciplinary records did not list the racial slurs even though Bender had written several reports about it.

U.S. District Judge Stephen H. Locher previously rejected the district’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit. In a June order, he said a jury could find that school officials had treated racial slurs less seriously than minor discipline violations so a hostile work environment developed and persisted.

After four days of testimony, the jury ruled for Bender. After about five and a half hours of deliberation, jurors awarded him $425,000 in compensatory damages against the school district and the two administrators.

The jury also awarded each administrator $100 in punitive damages. But Judge Locher later threw out those additional awards because the evidence did not show Miller and Warnecke had acted with malice or reckless indifference to Bender.

The $425,000 compensatory damages judgment remained.