WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, the Hardin County Common Pleas Court rejected Ohio Northern University’s (ONU) attempt to dismiss America First Legal’s (AFL) lawsuit against the university for firing AFL’s client, Dr. Scott Gerber, over objections to the university’s illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices. This case will now proceed to trial.
As alleged in the lawsuit, Dr. Gerber was terminated by ONU. He sued ONU, his former employer, alleging that they violated his tenure contract, retaliated against him for protected activity, and defamed him. Dr. Gerber raised concerns about faculty hiring at ONU’s law school because he believed ONU was considering race and sex in selecting its applicants. Dr. Gerber then submitted evidence to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission indicating that ONU was illegally considering race and sex in hiring. Within weeks, ONU launched an investigation into Dr. Gerber and refused to disclose what the investigation was about. A couple of months later, ONU sent security to Dr. Gerber’s classroom, which still had students in it. Security, accompanied by armed police officers, brought Dr. Gerber to the Dean’s office. There, while refusing to tell Dr. Gerber what he was alleged to have done, the university informed Dr. Gerber that he would be terminated unless he agreed to resign.
ONU has tried to have the case tossed out of court. The Court rejected ONU’s arguments, and now it will go to trial and be heard by a jury.
In rejecting ONU’s arguments, the Court observed:
- ONU considered the plaintiff’s DEI complaints when deciding to terminate his employment, and their non-retaliatory reasons may be pretext.
- ONU violated Dr. Gerber’s tenure contract through serious procedural defects, such as ONU’s failure to provide proper notice of what Dr. Gerber had allegedly done wrong and failing to explain how Dr. Gerber’s alleged improper actions affected his fitness as a faculty member.
- ONU was required by Dr. Gerber’s tenure contract and a prior order of the Court to state with particularity the grounds for dismissal. ONU failed to do this, and the Court stated ONU’s lack of regard for particularity “is either naive or a callous disregard for due process” and that ONU attempted to end-run the Court’s order.
- ONU’s public statement is fairly read as calling Dr. Gerber a safety threat, but ONU failed to put forward evidence that Dr. Gerber was ever a safety threat. Regarding the one incident to which the university has pointed to support its accusation, the Court stated: “the record now seems clear that the staff member’s concern for safety during the [] exchange was not objectively reasonable.”
AFL looks forward to taking Dr. Gerber’s case to trial and proving to a jury that ONU breached Dr. Gerber’s tenure contract, defamed him, and did it because of Dr. Gerber’s objections to ONU’s illegal DEI hiring.
Statement from Nicholas Barry, America First Legal Senior Counsel:
“This order from the Court certainly vindicates what Dr. Gerber has been saying for over a year. He was wrongly terminated, defamed, and targeted because of his objections to ONU’s illegal DEI hiring practices. We look forward to proving this to a jury next year,” said Nicholas Barry.
Read the order here.
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