Former executive files defamation lawsuit against Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, trustee

DALLAS – Editor’s Note: The video at the top of this article originally aired on November 8, 2021.

Dr. James Whitfield, former principal of Colleyville Heritage High School, filed a $250,000 libel suit on Friday afternoon against Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District and board member Tammy Nakamura.

The six-page lawsuit alleges that Nakamura slandered Dr. Whitfield in violation of a settlement agreement reached with the school district last year.

The lawsuit states: “On June 26, 2022, GCISD Trustee Tammy Nakamura spoke at a School Board panel at the RNC Community Center in Dallas County, Texas. During this recorded speech, trustee Nakamura referred to Dr. Whitfield as a “total activist”. She went on to state that she looked through “the entire file” of Dr. Whitfield and that the letter he sent denouncing discrimination and emphasizing that education was the key to overcoming it was “the straw that broke the camel’s back…that got him fired.” She went on to say that Dr. Whitfield “promoted the movement” and that there was “absolute evidence of what he was trying to do”, and called teachers like Dr. Whitfield “poison”.

The RNC Community Center in Dallas County is operated by the Republican National Committee. It opened in November 2021.

The lawsuit says that after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Dr. Whitfield, a black man, sent an email “denouncing discrimination and emphasizing that education is the key to overcoming it.”

Whitfield was accused of promoting critical race theory on the GCISD. The school board put him on paid leave.

But just before the trustees voted not to renew his contract, Dr. Whitfield and GCISD came to an agreement and he voluntarily resigned. Part of the settlement agreement stated that neither Whitfield nor GCISD would retaliate or make disparaging remarks about each other.

The defamation lawsuit alleges that Nakamura’s trustee, as a board member of GCISD, was bound by the terms of the settlement agreement.

“Her disparaging comments about Dr. Whitfield clearly violated both paragraphs 9 and 10 of the Settlement Agreement. Dr. Whitfield’s reputation and his continued search for a new job has been damaged by Nakamura’s defamatory comments from the Trustee,” the lawsuit says.

The WFAA contacted GCISD and trustee Nakamura on Friday afternoon about the litigation but did not immediately receive responses to our requests for comment.