{"id":53895,"date":"2025-11-18T03:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/53895\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T03:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:11:08","slug":"former-alamo-trust-ceo-alleges-first-amendment-violation-in-wrongful-termination-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/53895\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Alamo Trust CEO alleges First Amendment violation in wrongful termination lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Former Alamo Trust president and CEO Kate Rogers alleges her First Amendment rights were violated in a wrongful termination lawsuit<\/a> filed Monday against state and Alamo Trust leaders.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit names the following defendants:<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick<\/p>\n

Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office Dawn Buckingham (Buckingham\u2019s agency oversees the Alamo)<\/p>\n

Alamo Trust, Inc.<\/p>\n

Remember the Alamo Foundation<\/p>\n

Welcome Wilson, Jr., chair of the Alamo Trust Board of Directors<\/p>\n

Among her requests in the lawsuit, Rogers is asking to be reinstated as president and CEO of the Alamo Trust and to be paid damages.<\/p>\n

Indigenous Peoples Day post<\/p>\n

On Oct. 13, the Alamo\u2019s X accounts made a post in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we honor Indigenous Peoples and their communities, recognizing their history at the Alamo,\u201d the post said. \u201cOpening in 2027, the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum will feature an Indigenous Peoples Gallery, celebrating the bands, clans and tribes that shaped the region. #IndigenousPeoplesDay.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the post, Buckingham\u2019s Chief of Staff, Adrian Piloto, called the Alamo Trust\u2019s communications director \u201cto complain about the post,\u201d the lawsuit says. The communications director then posted a second statement recognizing Columbus Day, and Piloto allowed both posts to stay up.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the next day, Buckingham said on X, \u201cI did NOT authorize this post. This is frankly unacceptable and it has been deleted. Woke has no place at the Alamo.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Oct. 15, the lawsuit says Buckingham sent a publicly posted letter to the Alamo Trust Board, asserting the post was \u201cmisaligned with the culture of The Alamo … This blatant disregard of the battle-centric focus of The Alamo, that most Texans expect \u2013 the liberty or death history, must be addressed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an Oct. 15 board meeting, the board allegedly told Rogers, \u201cThe state is too upset about this. Someone is going to have to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Rogers offered to resign. The board told her they \u201cwould not even consider it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board then voted to terminate the communications director, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

Dissertation statements<\/p>\n

The lawsuit says Rogers\u2019 Alamo Trust leadership ended \u201cabruptly\u201d after Patrick read a copy of her 2023 dissertation, where she \u201cexpressed her personal views about the role of the Alamo in bringing people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit emphasizes that Rogers wrote the dissertation in support of her doctorate of education. Rogers also made similar statements posted online in 2022 and 2023, \u201cand no one had ever expressed any concerts about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, her dissertation made \u201ctwo personal statements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilosophically, I do not believe it is the role of politicians to determine what professional educators can or should teach in the classroom,\u201d Rogers wrote. \u201cInstead, teachers should be afforded the autonomy to make those decisions based on their own expertise as well as the needs of their students.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the second statement, Rogers described how her role \u201cpositioned her between state political leaders,\u201d noting that San Antonio officials \u201cdo not agree with the state\u2019s emphasis on the Battle as the main focus of the future Visitor Center and Museum.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I would love to see the Alamo become a beacon for historical reconciliation and be a place that brings people together versus tearing them apart, but politically that may not be possible at this time,\u201d Rogers wrote.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 22, Patrick allegedly called Rogers and told her he found her dissertation. <\/p>\n

\u201cI need you to resign. You need to resign,\u201d Patrick allegedly said to Rogers. The lawsuit says he also told her to make a public statement that her dissertation \u201chad become a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogers declined to resign. She later spoke to two Alamo Trust senior staffers and Andrade that evening, who \u201cpledged her support to Rogers,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

But on Oct. 23, Andrade called Rogers and told her that Patrick insisted she be terminated. When asked what would happen if she didn\u2019t resign, Andrade allegedly responded, \u201cThen we will fire you,\u201d and said Wilson agreed with the ultimatum, the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cRogers was terminated for one reason, and one reason only,\u201d the lawsuit alleges. \u201cLieutenant Governor Patrick and Commissioner Buckingham did not like Rogers\u2019s speech in her personal dissertation.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Rogers spoke publicly with Texas Monthly about her termination, the lawsuit alleges \u201cthe Alamo Trust and the Remember the Alamo Foundation retaliated against her by revoking their severance offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The termination happened as the Alamo site is under construction on a visitor center and new museum<\/a> as part of a $550 million redevelopment plan. The museum is expected to be completed in 2027.<\/p>\n

Related coverage on KSAT.com:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Former Alamo Trust president and CEO Kate Rogers alleges her First Amendment rights were violated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1864,4556,13987,287,82,84,83,27,9587],"class_list":{"0":"post-53895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-dan-patrick","9":"tag-dawn-buckingham","10":"tag-kate-rogers","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","14":"tag-san-antonio-news","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-the-alamo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}