PROFESSOR ACCUSED OF BEING 'RACIST AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE' AWARDED $127K HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT SETTLEMENT

BY JENNI FINK ON 5/7/19 AT 4:30 PM EDT

A jury dismissed three of the four claims leveled in a racial discrimination lawsuit against Northwest Christian University (NCU), but sided with the professor with regard to one of his claims and awarded him $127,000.

Johnny Lake, a former professor at Northwest Christian University, a private Christian liberal arts school in Eugene, Oregon, filed the lawsuit in April 2018 and the jury delivered its verdict on Friday. They dismissed three of Lake’s claims—that he was discriminated against based on his race, retaliated against because he complained and had work conditions so intolerable it would cause a reasonable person to resign.

However, jurors agreed with Lake, who is black, on his claim that the university created a hostile work environment.

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“A small number of white NCU students regularly accused Dr. Lake of being racist against white people, hating white people, or accusing him of being intimidating,” the lawsuit claimed. “NCU’s administration was noticeably silent in addressing these important concerns.”

In 2017, according to the lawsuit, a white student told Lake her parents didn’t want her taking his class because of his race, which he said the university failed to respond to in any way. He also alleged that he was subjected to “racially offensive or deprecating” comments in faculty or group settings.

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