Weinstein resigns as Evergreen State settles lawsuit
Bret Weinstein, the professor who sued Evergreen State College for failing to protect him and his wife from “verbal and written hostility,” will receive a $500,000 settlement from the college.
According to The Seattle Times, Evergreen announced the settlement in an email to faculty and staff on Friday, stating that Weinstein and his wife, Heather Heying, will receive $450,000 in compensation and $50,000 for attorney fees from the college.
The figure is substantially less than the $3.8 million claim that Weinstein and Heying filed against the school in July, but enabled both professors to announce their resignations on the same day.
[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Weinstein files $3.8M claim against Evergreen State]
According to the email, however, the college does not accept the charge that the “Day of Absence”—an event that asked white students, faculty and staff to leave campus for the day—was discriminatory, as Weinstein had controversially alleged.
“In making this agreement, the college admits no liability, and rejects the allegations made in the tort claim,” Evergreen wrote in the email.
“The educational activities of Day of Absence/Day of Presence were not discriminatory,” the school insists, adding that “The college took reasonable and appropriate steps to engage with protesters during spring quarter, de-escalate conflict, and keep the campus safe.”
[RELATED: VIDEO: White prof harassed for questioning diversity event]
According to the report, Evergreen spokesman Zach Powers explained that lengthy litigation would be expensive for the college and that the settlement was in the interest of the school, explaining that “years of expensive litigation would drain resources and distract from our mission to provide an outstanding education at reasonable cost to the veterans, first-generation college students, creative thinkers, and future leaders who study at Evergreen.”
The newspaper also reported that the professor and his wife resigned on Friday, with college officials preparing to accommodate the affected Evergreen students.
Legal documents first obtained by Campus Reform in July revealed that the couple was preparing to file a $3.8 million claim against Evergreen, claiming that the public institution “has permitted, cultivated, and perpetuated a racially hostile and retaliatory work environment.”
[RELATED: Exclusive: Weinstein’s lengthy struggle at Evergreen State]
“Through a series of decisions made at the highest levels, including to officially support a day of racial segregation, the College has refused to protect its employees from repeated provocative and corrosive verbal and written hostility based on race, as well as threats of physical violence,” Weinstein’s attorneys argued in the document.
At the time, the attorneys also told Campus Reform that the $3.8 million was a total claimed by by the couple “for the hostile work environment that has been fostered at the college over the past year or so.”
Weinstein did not immediately respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment.
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