Former Penn State professor appeals court’s dismissal of lawsuit alleging the school is ‘racially hostile’

A former Penn State University professor is appealing a court’s dismissal of his lawsuit, in which he alleges was brought due to how the university created a “racially hostile” environment. 

In a court filing from March, a federal judge dismissed Zack De Piero’s claims while confirming facts like how between 2018-2022, De Pierro was an assistant teaching professor of English Composition at Penn State’s Abington Writing Program.

In the court filing, the judge lists twelve incidents that occurred during De Piero’s time at the university, including an email that was “commemorating Juneteenth,” to emails about the university’s “hiring of a White police officer,” to the university’s “handling of an internal complaint filed by De Perio in September 2021 which raised concerns about discrimination and harassment on the basis of color.” 

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In the judge’s ruling, the court stated that “no reasonable jury could determine that the twelve incidents at issue here constitute ‘a constant drumbeat of essentialist, deterministic, and negative language’” that warrants his hostile work environment claims to go to trial.”

Shortly after, the Federalist Society hosted a webinar with De Piero’s legal counsel, Mountain States Legal Foundation’s General Counsel, William E. Trachman, where the Federalist Society reiterated De Piero’s claims were focused on how “the University’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives created a hostile work environment with a race-essentialism focus.”

On Mountain State Legal Foundation’s website about the case, attorneys for De Piero state that Pennsylvania State University “promoted materials claiming that non-white students were incapable of meeting standards of quality in writing, which were ‘white supremacist’ anyway, and instructing teachers to give up even trying to help.” 

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“It [Penn State University trained staff instead that “white teachers are a problem,” that “white culture” was a barrier to student success, and that simply being a white teacher in a classroom was a form of harm,” Mountain State Legal added.

Mountain State Legal’s Senior Attorney James Kerwin told Campus Reform that Professor De Piero has appealed a lower court’s decision to dismiss his claims on summary judgment. 

”The lower court held that De Piero lacked sufficient evidence that his work environment was racially hostile or that he was retaliated against for trying to discuss fundamental questions about fairness, race, and the law” Kerwin said. “Both holdings were profoundly in error.”

“De Piero was instructed that white college professors are incapable of doing their jobs because their “white bodies” get in the way of effective teaching.  That alone is more than enough to show a hostile work environment -- and there is much more,” Kerwin told Campus Reform. “And the supervisors who filed complaints against De Piero in retaliation for his attempts to discuss these issues admitted that they did so because he was speaking ‘as a white man.’ We are confident the Court of Appeals will reverse, and send the case back for a trial.”

Campus Reform has contacted Penn State University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.