School secretary sues to get job back after posting ‘run, n—–, run,’ about Obama

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Good luck trying to get your job back.

A former school secretary in Harlingen, Texas is suing the school district for firing him over a racist post on Facebook. Courthouse News Service reported that Abel Gonzalez believes that his right of free speech was infringed upon by the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District when he used the N-word on his personal computer.

Yah, right.


Gonzales’ suit, which was filed in the Federal Court in Brownsville, Texas, said, “On Saturday, August 25, 2012 at 9:08 a.m., plaintiff was at home on his own personal computer, when plaintiff received an e-mail from the Huffington Post’s Facebook page.”

“The Facebook page had a picture of a little girl chasing President Obama in the Oval Office and beneath the picture were the words, ‘Caption this,’” the complaint continued. “Plaintiff wrote ‘Run N—– Run.’”


A commenter on Huffington Post’s page named C. Orlando Pettiford saw Rodriguez’ racist post and copied and pasted it to the Dr. Rodriguez Elementary School Facebook page, the school where Gonzales worked as a secretary.

School principal Tracy Gonzalez received notice about the racist post that same day.

On September 7, 2012, School Superintendent Steve Flores placed Gonzales on administrative leave. Two weeks later, Gonzales was fired.

He is suing the school district for $2 million in damages for “conspiracy, civil rights violations and violations of the First Amendment and due process.”

When will citizens understand that speech is not always free, and that people are free to respond to vulgar, distasteful, racist and threatening language in ways to protect their institutions, their people and their brands?

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