Conservative prof wins $2.4 million in settlement through free speech lawsuit
Matthew Garrett, a conservative history professor, agreed to the multi-million dollar settlement after a five year-long legal battle with a California school district.
One administrator said of Garrett and several of his colleagues, ‘that's why we put a rope on them and take them to the slaughterhouse.’
A professor has won a multimillion dollar settlement after exposing retaliation he faced for challenging woke policies at a California community college.
Matthew Garrett, a former history professor at Bakersfield College recently won a $2.4 million dollar settlement after being terminated from his teaching post for allegedly making “insulting,” “untrue” and “personal” comments about black students and professors during a committee meeting organized by the Kern Community College District (KCCD).
Garrett told The College Fix in an email that KCCD agreed to pay out the amounts specified in the settlement in order to avoid paying larger penalties in the event that it lost an ongoing lawsuit against Garrett concerning the validity of these and other claims.
“After five years of administrative misconduct, a decisive courtroom display exonerated me of all allegations and exposed that Kern Community College District engaged in flagrant retaliation for my questioning of partisan policies and wasteful expenditures,” Garrett said.
Garrett’s lawsuit named several defendants, including KCCD board president John Corkins, who said of Garrett and a number of his colleagues, “that’s why we put a rope on them and take them to the slaughterhouse,” during a longer statement in which he advocated for their termination.
Garrett also noted that many of the allegations levied against him were based on anonymous complaints and seemingly worded to strip him of his First Amendment rights.
“If you start to really look at them one by one, they’re really just flimsy sorts of allegations, but it can be overwhelming to someone who doesn’t know the context,” he said. “The idea that they can tamp down discussion by simply labeling things dishonest, unprofessional or immoral in order to circumvent the First Amendment protections and to mischaracterize me as some sort of horrible person is really disturbing.”
A KCCD spokesperson told Campus Reform that the district’s disagreement with Garrett did not concern his right to free speech, noting that its move to agree to settlement was based on considerations concerning students’ quality of education.
“KCCD believes the settlement is in the best interest of the District and allows us to focus on the future and continue to deliver quality higher education for students of Kern County without any further legal distractions,” the spokesperson said. “To be clear, the dispute with Matthew Garrett was a disciplinary matter due to his disruptive actions on campus, none of which concerned freedom of speech.”
[RELATED: UCLA prof bans in-class recordings to protect free speech]
Garrett, who agreed not to return to his teaching post at Bakersfield as part of the settlement, expressed his well wishes for similarly situated faculty across the country in an email exchange with The College Fix.
“To my colleagues at Bakersfield College and nationwide, I say: Keep the faith; we are winning the battle, one case at a time.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Matthew Garrett and Bakersfield College for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.