Miss-spent funds wrote on Sep 14, 2007 7:38 AM:Here we see what effectively is politically correct based extortion from the schools. Any money given as a settlement here takes away from the quality of education for our children.

jack wrote on Sep 14, 2007 7:54 AM:good now you can get a new kia rio.with all that big money

slappy wrote on Sep 14, 2007 10:10 AM:this story stinks to the high heavens. You identify him as (A Latino bus mechanic) why cant he just be a mechanic, I am so sick of people droping the race card. I bet this guy was a sub-par employee who never earned the respect of his co-workers so to compensate for his lack of skills he went into the poor little picked on discriminated against victom act. I hope he is very pleased with his sewer settelment. he just needs to rember that no good will ever come from ill gotten gains. Thank God for that. To bad this will never see the light of day thanks to your weak editing/ discrimminating policy.

bvv wrote on Sep 14, 2007 11:34 AM:Tax-supported agencies should not be allowed to make "non disclosure" settlements of any legal action. There is no good reason for paying tax funds in secret.

that ain't right wrote on Sep 14, 2007 12:44 PM:How can a settlement made with public funds be sealed with a non-disclosure agreement? I want to know how much money I (the taxpayer) paid to this guy, the results of the investigation into the improper actions, if the two accused co-workers were found to be in fault and were disciplined, and what the district is doing to make sure this doesn't happen again. This non-disclosure settlement is shady and should be illegal.

Local voter wrote on Sep 14, 2007 2:08 PM:I'll keep this expense of public funds in mind when I vote against the school bond.

Mis-directed Anger wrote on Sep 14, 2007 2:40 PM:When this story first came out a man blogged in and said he worked with this guy and he was an excellent mechanic and a gentleman. I for one would not allow anyone I worked with to get away with racial jokes or comments. Perhaps if you've never been the victim of it you wouldn't understand. It wasn't the mechanic who caused the district to lose money it was the co-workers who felt it was absolutely necessary to treat the man differently because of his ethnicity. You people are angry at the wrong person.

get a clue wrote on Sep 14, 2007 5:20 PM:To Mis-directed anger. You have no idea who are what may have percipitated this frivilous lawsuit and wasted tax payer money. Did it occur to you that the plantiff may have in fact written in himself and stated what a "gentleman" he was. If this guys circumstance was so bad as to have to file a lawsuit then why didn't he leave years ago? None of us no for sure what went on but I seriously doubt that this guy experienced racial discrimination. More than likely just another disgruntled employee looking for easy money.

To Get a Clue wrote on Sep 14, 2007 9:42 PM:No it never occured to me that the man would log in and blog anonymously on his own behalf. Further I think its pretty sad for you that you would. You are right I have no idea what actions or events brought about this lawsuit but neither do you yet you are able to dismiss it as "frivolous" and "More than likey just another disgruntled employee". You're quite the hypocrite. And in case you didn't know we all have the right to a work environment free of harrassment of any kind and we don't have "leave" as you say. I have a clue, why don't you get a library card.

Archie wrote on Sep 15, 2007 8:36 AM:All monies spent, and received, by a school district must be available for everyone to see. That includes lawsuits. In the near future, we'll all know how much money was given to the mechanic and how much the lawyer received.

haha on get a clue. wrote on Sep 15, 2007 9:19 AM:''get a library card....lol''

gustavo wrote on Sep 15, 2007 12:15 PM:In this day and age of intolerance for racial discrimination I find it interesting that a victim of true racial discrimination would settle a lawsuit. Don Imus got booted off the air for one stupid comment. I am quite sure a jury would be more than willing to find for a plantiff if his or her case were truly righteous. So why settle when the reward could be so great? And what attorney would pass up a big payday. Why settle for less than a large award? Could it be there is less to this case than meets the print?

To Gustavo wrote on Sep 17, 2007 9:57 AM:Unfortunately we will never know the answers to your valid questions because of the secrecy of the "settlement". Does anyone know if it is possible for the NCT to try to get the details using the Freedom of Information Act?-

teacher wrote on Sep 18, 2007 7:34 PM:this is where part of your bond money might go.

THE ONE wrote on Sep 19, 2007 9:30 AM:JUSTICE SWEET JUSTICE!

No Answer wrote on Sep 19, 2007 2:06 PM:I emailed the editor to ask if they received a response from the district lawyers, but I never received a response from the editor. It seems as though the NCT thinks its acceptable to publish an incomplete story and then never follow up on the unfinished parts. I want answers on this secret settlement made with public funds, and it is the responsibility of news organizations to provide the public with this info. Also, I guess its SOP to ignore customer inquiries at the NCT. Ugh...

Re; Why settle? wrote on Sep 20, 2007 9:11 AM:Both plaintiffs and defendants settle lawsuits for several reasons: 1) It is less expensive than taking the case to trial; 2) There is risk involved in a trial. They may not get paid as much/or have to pay more than they would if they settled. (Juries are unpredictable.) 3) To get it over with. Since the settlement amount is undisclosed, we cannot say if this man got a lot of money or only a little. However, if there was absolutely no merit in his allegations, the defendant would not likely have settled. What is certain, is that suits for discrimination can be completely bogus, completely valid, or somewhere in between. It's usually the latter. So unless you know ALL the details, I'd suggest reserving your judgment for something you are fully informed on. There's always two sides to the story.

Maybe not... wrote on Sep 21, 2007 10:45 AM:FYI, many school districts have litigation insurance that pays judgments or settlements, so whatever amount of money this man got, may have been paid by an insurance company, not out of district funds.-

Oh Brother! wrote on Sep 23, 2007 3:38 PM:Why oh why must we post news about Latinos...we all know if it was a WHITE mechanic, it probably would have not been posted. Give me a break!/