Patrick Hogarty is an experienced educator employed from 2021-2024 as the Dean of Students at the Campus Middle School in Cherry Creek School District, located in Greenwood Village, Colorado. Last year, the District pressured Patrick to embrace race-based ideologies and punished him when he refused to comply. The District retaliated against Patrick by eliminating his position after he expressed his personal views on race during a mandatory diversity training session titled Courageous Conversations, a product of the Pacific Education Group.
Previously discovered Courageous Conversations materials reveal the program sought to implement critical race theory to transform school leadership and force white district employees to recognize “the problem of their whiteness.”
Participants in the training session were told that their comments would be kept confidential and that their employment status would not be affected by the comments made during discussion periods. During one of these discussion periods, Patrick stated that he “identifies as an American” and that the “United States was the greatest country on earth.”
After the training session, the District’s Equity Director, Ronald Garcia y Ortiz, stated that Patrick’s comments had “racist undertones.” Despite the assurances from District officials that his comments would not result in adverse employment actions, less than two months after the training, the District informed Patrick his position had been eliminated for “budgetary reasons.”
Patrick is represented by attorneys Ian Prior and Laura Stell of America First Legal Foundation and Stephen McKenna of The McKenna Project. On September 25, 2024, Patrick and his attorneys filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against the Cherry Creek School District and its administrative officials. Among other rulings, the lawsuit requests a finding that the school district and officials violated Patrick’s First Amendment free speech rights, an injunction enjoining the school district from compelling speech, and an order requiring the school district to revise its employment policies to protect its employees’ First Amendment rights. Patrick’s attorneys intend to pursue all avenues necessary to achieve justice.
