The former principal of a charter school in North Carolina is accusing the school of firing him after just two months because he hired staff who weren’t white and enforced a COVID mask mandate. Brian Bauer alleges in a lawsuit filed in federal court that he got the axe “for his hiring of racially diverse staff and/or his insistence on enforcement of the school’s Reopening Plan.” Cardinal Charter Academy hired Bauer in July and fired him in October. In that time, he filled eight of 20 outstanding vacancies with Black employees, after which a school board member “explicitly stated her disapproval,” according to the suit. He also alleges that he needed to discipline staff for not complying with the school’s mask mandate, which required all students and staff to cover their faces, regardless of vaccination status, a policy that elicited parent complaints. The charter school’s parent company Charter Schools USA declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
