{"id":27736,"date":"2014-10-03T17:49:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T09:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=27736"},"modified":"2014-10-03T17:49:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T09:49:48","slug":"former-head-of-school-founded-by-nicholas-sparks-sues-says-novelist-didnt-value-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/03\/former-head-of-school-founded-by-nicholas-sparks-sues-says-novelist-didnt-value-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Former head of school founded by Nicholas Sparks sues, says novelist didn\u2019t value diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nicholas<\/a>
Nicholas Sparks at the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘The Lucky One’. Phil Stafford \/ Shutterstock.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RALEIGH, N.C.\u2014The former headmaster of a private school founded by novelist Nicholas Sparks says the author and other school leaders forced him out when he tried to recruit black students and faculty and supported a bullied group of gay students, and on Thursday he sued for damages.<\/p>\n

In the federal lawsuit, Saul Hillel Benjamin accuses Sparks of making racially and religiously dismissive remarks while Benjamin headed the college-prep K-12 school Sparks founded in New Bern, his hometown of 30,000 people about 100 miles east of Raleigh.<\/p>\n

Sparks is a prolific author of love stories that are regularly turned into Hollywood movies\u2014among them, \u201cThe Notebook,\u201d \u201cDear John,\u201d and \u201cThe Last Song.\u201d The film adaptation of \u201cThe Best of Me\u201d will be released in theatres this month\u2014the ninth of Sparks\u2019 17 novels to be made into a movie, according to his website.<\/p>\n

Benjamin\u2019s lawsuit seeks lost income and punitive damages against Sparks, three other members of the board of The Epiphany School of Global Studies, and the Nicholas Sparks Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently, despite the efforts our society has made, Mr. Sparks wants to travel back in time and vilify those who promote diversity and tolerance of all people regardless of their sexual orientation and race,\u201d said Douglas H. Wigdor, a New York attorney representing Benjamin.<\/p>\n

Theresa Sprain, an attorney representing Sparks in the case, denied the allegations in Benjamin\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a gay, Jewish man who has represented Nick for almost 20 years I find these allegations completely ludicrous and offensive,\u201d\u00a0entertainment\u00a0attorney Scott Schwimer said in a statement released by Sparks\u2019 publicist.<\/p>\n

Benjamin was hired before the 2013-14 school year after professorial jobs in Morocco, Germany and Lebanon, according to his resume. He had four-year contracts with both the school and Sparks\u2019 foundation totalling $256,000 a year plus bonus and benefits, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s website says it does not discriminate against applicants based on gender, race, colour, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. But Benjamin said that when he tried to recruit black students and teachers, Sparks told him \u201cdiversity should not be measured by percentages of minority students enrolled or minority faculty employed,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Benjamin said Sparks and conservative Christian members on the school\u2019s board questioned his Jewish background and Quaker beliefs. During one meeting, \u201cSparks insisted that Mr. Benjamin stop talking about Islam, Judaism, or any other non-Christian religion\u201d at school functions, the lawsuit said. \u201cThat\u2019s not what our parents like to hear,\u201d the lawsuit quoted Sparks as saying.<\/p>\n

Sparks also criticized Benjamin for attending an NAACP event, according to the lawsuit. Benjamin said he attended to introduce himself to black parents whose children might apply for admission to the school if they were made to feel welcome.<\/p>\n

Sparks \u201cindicated that Mr. Benjamin should utilize less public and visible means if he sought to meet with African-Americans,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

School trustees pressed Benjamin to stop supporting students who had been bullied after forming a club where they could discuss their sexual identities, the lawsuit said. One said Benjamin was \u201cpromoting a homosexual culture and agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also accused Sparks of locking Benjamin in a room at the school last November and shouting at the headmaster. Benjamin says that he feared for his safety and that the incident ended when he wrote a resignation letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH, N.C.\u2014The former headmaster of a private school founded by novelist Nicholas Sparks says the author and other school leaders …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":27737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hollywood","mauthors-emery-p-dalesio","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}