The Retaliation and Harassment Continues After the Shooting

The Retaliation and Harassment Continues After the Shooting

35. Obviously, Mr. Benitez was in no condition to immediately resume his daily teaching duties. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the parallel provisions of Texas law, Del Mar accommodated Mr. Benitez’s disability by allowing him to teach from home via the internet, among other things.

36. Matula and others within the Del Mar administration bided their time while Mr. Benitez recovered, waiting for the opportunity to eliminate him as a member of the faculty. They begin trying to build a case against Mr. Benitez by having Huegler interrogate students who called with questions about Mr. Benitez’s classes. In a
Complaint

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statement dated April 16, 2004, Michelle Marshall described an incident that occurred at the beginning of the spring semester:

I signed up for 2 of Mr. Benitez [sic] online classes and I had to call over there to talk to Karen [Huegler] since I could not access them at all. She informed me that she would email Mr. Benitez and also informed me that she was gonna go to her boss with the problem. I told her please not to do that, and to let him respond and then I would call her back if I didn’t hear from him. She made me feel like I was in the middle and I had a feeling that Karen and her bosses were attempting to build a conspiracy case against him to try to fire him since I had heard that from other students as well. I felt that they were trying to use me as bait in an attempt to entrapment [sic] Mr. Benitez and I didn’t appreciate that. I felt that it appeared they were acting in bad faith since she called me about a week later wanting to know what happened. I informed her that I spoke with him and everything was okay. I then hung up. She insisted on wanting to know what happened and I felt like it was between me and my instructor and I didn’t tell her anything.

On May 10, 2004, Mark Garcia described a similar incident from the beginning of the spring semester: I called to get some information from Mr. Benitez, about an online course that I was taking when [sic] I tried to get a hold of him, a secretary by the name of Karen, [sic] answered the phone and started asking me so many questions. I felt like I was being interrogated. I tried a number of times to get a hold of him, but when she would answer the phone she would ask so many questions about what I needed. In the way she was doing it [sic] seemed like I was a criminal being ask [sic] so many question [sic]. I tried numerous times to see if I could get a hold of Mr. Benitez, but every time she would answer I would just say wrong department and hang up. It wasn’t until I got Mr. Benitez [sic] e-mail address I started to get the information I needed instead of feeling like I was on trial. I felt like she and her department were deliberately trying to setup Mr. Benitez. I also felt that they deliberately worked against him because he helps many of the students who ask for his help.