From Judge David Alan Ezra's decision in Penders v. St. Edward's Univ. (W.D. Tex.), decided in March but just recently posted to Westlaw; the case has since settled, for an amount that to my knowledge has not been made public:
Penders is a white male who formerly worked as the head baseball coach of SEU from the fall of 2006, until his termination on December 3, 2021. According to Penders, he is the winningest coach in SEU history and was a model employee of SEU.
Prior to the 2020 baseball season, Penders alleges that he recruited Jacques Palmer, a black male, to play baseball at SEU, but the 2020 season was abruptly cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2021 season, according to Penders, Palmer went 0 for 8, but had limited playing time, and his eligibility expired at the end of that season. Palmer asked SEU to petition the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility. SEU apparently made the decision not to do so; Penders alleges that although the decision whether to petition the NCAA for the extra year of eligibility was not up to him, Palmer learned he would not be eligible and decided to make a complaint to SEU accusing Penders of racism and discrimination against Palmer as a black male.
Thereafter, SEU hired an external investigator to investigate Palmer's allegations. According to Penders, the investigator determined that Penders did not engage in any racist or discriminatory acts and that he had not violated any SEU rule or policy. Despite knowing the outcome of the independent investigation, Penders alleges that SEU and SEU President Montserratt Fuentes ("Fuentes") worked to conceal the outcome of the investigation and intentionally misled the community in an effort "to falsely portray herself [Fuentes] as fighting … for 'social justice.'" Penders contends that SEU and Fuentes "deliberately led students, faculty and the community to conclude that Penders had engaged in racist and discriminatory acts even though an external investigator and Fuentes herself concluded precisely the opposite."
According to Penders, SEU had a communication plan to conceal from the community the outcome of the investigation and to deploy "optics" which would mislead students into believing Penders had been found guilty of discrimination, and that certain "consequences," including watching training videos on communicating with players and cultural awareness, had been imposed on Penders for discriminatory conduct. Penders suggests SEU intentionally and dishonestly portrayed Fuentes as fighting against Penders for "social justice" to display SEU in a good light following the events of the May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which triggered national conversations about racial violence and inequality, including in university settings such as SEU.
Subsequent to the investigation, Penders alleges that after SEU notified Palmer of the outcome of the investigation exonerating Penders, Palmer took to social media in an effort to put pressure on Fuentes to fire Penders. On October 4, 2021, Penders asserts that Palmer and his friend posted an online petition with the headline "Remove Coach Penders of St. Edward's University for Racist Comments and Discrimination." Penders contends that the petition inaccurately states that he was "found guilty" of several claims, including saying the "N-word" in front of the team before a practice, telling black student athletes to remove their head coverings, and telling black players about his family's racist history and being insensitive to the experiences of black people." The petition goes on to read that "[d]espite the University finding [Penders] guilty, they have chosen not to suspend or remove him from his position" and that the petition seeks to remove Penders from his position to make SEU "understand the severity of [Penders'] actions and the consequences his discrimination has on Black players."
