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The Fort Worth Independent School District Administration building at 7060 Camp Bowie Blvd on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
Abigail Dollins<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n
A 14-year-old case between the Fort Worth school district and whistleblower Joseph Palazzolo will go to a jury for the second time, an appeals court ruled Thursday, Aug. 13.<\/p>\n
In August 2010, Palazzolo, a former assistant principal and campus diversity representative at Arlington Heights, filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency alleging falsification of attendance records, sexual misconduct and discrimination at the high school.<\/p>\n
Three months later, Palazzolo was fired by the district on grounds that school officials said were \u201cunrelated to his reports of wrongdoing.\u201d Palazzolo appealed his termination to TEA.<\/p>\n
In 2014, a Wise County court awarded Palazzolo over $2.4 million, but an appeals court reversed that judgment in 2016, ruling that the judge failed to ask the jury if the district would have fired Palazzolo regardless of his complaints. The appeals court ordered a new trial.<\/p>\n
In 2019, an appeals court ruled against Fort Worth ISD\u2019s request to dismiss the case. In January, the trial court judge, 271st Judicial District Judge Brock Smith, denied a motion made by the school district<\/a> to dismiss the suit. About a week before the scheduled February trial, the school district filed an appeal asking the Texas Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth to dismiss the lawsuit.<\/p>\n In an opinion handed down Aug. 13, the court said the school district\u2019s actions were \u201cblatant retaliation,\u201d according to a release by Warren Norred, attorney for Palazzolo.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what happens when a school district treats litigation as a bottomless pit funded by taxpayers instead of children,\u201d Norred said in the release. \u201cFWISD has now lost this jurisdictional fight in every court that has heard it; the trial court, this Court of Appeals, and the Texas Supreme Court. Every appeal cost Fort Worth taxpayers\u2019 real money on top of the back pay and attorney fees still owed to a man who did exactly what a whistleblower is supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
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