Charlotte middle school teacher fired over Critical Race Theory, lawsuit claims

A middle school English teacher is the “latest casualty of book-banning hysteria,” according to a federal lawsuit filed this week against a Charlotte charter school.

Markayle Gray claims Charlotte Secondary School fired him in February because of racially-inspired backlash over his teaching of “Dear Martin”, according to the civil rights lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of western North Carolina.

Gray taught “Dear Martin” to his seventh-grade honors students as part of Black History Month activities and Charlotte Secondary administrators approved the text, the suit claims. Head of School Keisha Rock recommended the book, Gray’s attorney Artur Davis, of HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, says.

“Dear Martin” is a New York Times bestselling novel about a Black student attending an elite prep school who becomes the victim of racial profiling. The student looks to the teachings of Martin Luther King for answers.

“Charlotte Secondary should have been glad to have Markayle Gray as a role model for the young Black men and teenagers at this school,” Davis, based in Birmingham, Ala., told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday. “They have sent these young leaders-to-be a devastating signal about the price of truth.”

Charlotte Secondary is a nonprofit charter school off Monroe Road in southeast Charlotte that opened in 2007 and serves students in grades 6-12. It enrolls roughly 240 students — 80 to 85% who are Black, Hispanic or biracial, according to the lawsuit.

Rock acknowledged the lawsuit Wednesday and forwarded a statement from Hartzog Law Group, based in Raleigh.

“Since this is a personnel matter, we are limited in what we can say about the reasons for Mr. Gray’s termination,” Katie Weaver Hartzog said. “However, I can say that the termination of Mr. Gray’s employment was based on legitimate, nondiscriminatory, non-retaliatory reasons. The school denies any and all allegations of wrongdoing and intends to vigorously defend the suit.”

Gray, 30, is seeking “significant damages to compensate for the emotional distress of losing a job he loved,” Davis says, including back pay, front pay, lost benefits and attorneys’ fees.

Dear Martin divisive?

Charlotte Secondary administrators fired Gray on Feb. 2 after white parents complained “Dear Martin” was “divisive and injected unwelcome political views on systemic racial inequality into their children’s classroom,” according to the lawsuit.

Rock gave Gray permission to build lesson plans around the novel that was assigned in January, and the book was included in a list of approved literary selections. In fact, Rock recommended the text “as a challenging but age appropriate work that promoted a discussion of core American values like justice and equality,” according to the lawsuit.

Gray was hired in October 2022 and signed to a one-year contract subject to renewal. He was fired immediately on the grounds of parental opposition, he was told, the suit claims. The school’s Board of Directors also had received complaints from parents and board members authorized his firing.

“He was not given a reason in writing for his firing,” Davis said. “Even more unusual, he was fired immediately, as opposed to his contract not being renewed at the end of the school year.”

According to the lawsuit, Charlotte Secondary took “no steps to investigate or examine whether any of the parents’ concerns were rooted in the parents’ own racial bias or resentment.”

In its published core principles, Charlotte Secondary, says: “Diversity is not merely desirable, it is necessary for the accomplishment of our mission.”

A challenged book

In March, North Carolina House Republicans approved new rules limiting how racism and sexism can be taught. The vote went along party lines with all Republicans in support and all Democrats in opposition, the News & Observer reported.

GOP lawmakers say the bill is designed to prevent schools from promoting Critical Race Theory. House Bill 187 has provisions such as one saying teachers shall not promote that anyone “should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” based on their race or sex.

The legislation is now awaiting action from the GOP-controlled Senate.

“Principal Rock and the Charlotte Secondary Board of Directors seem to care more about bowing to political pressure than they do about following their own procedures and policies,” Davis said. “All Markayle Gray did was teach a novel his supervisors had already approved and they fired him for it.”

Parents in Wake County Public Schools challenged “Dear Martin,” by Nic Stone, in Febuary 2022, the News & Observer reported.

The superintendent of Haywood County Schools in western North Carolina removed “Dear Martin” from a 10th grade English class in 2022. It was removed after one parent objected to the profanity in the book.