Lawsuit: Nicholas Sparks Is a Racist, Homophobic, Anti-Semitic Monster
Nicholas Sparks, progenitor of best-selling books that get adapted into movies that apparently inspire (half) brothers and and sisters to fuck each other, is being sued by the former headmaster of his Epiphany School for Global Studies, TMZ reports.
Saul Hillel Benjamin's lawsuit is a doozy: He claims to have been privy to The Notebook author disparaging black and gay people and expressing anti-Semitic views.
After Benjamin brought up to Sparks (who founded the school in 2006 with his wife Catherine) that the New Bern, North Carolina school lacked diversity, with allegedly only two out of 514 students being black, he claims the author gruffed, "Black students are too poor and can't do the academic work." And when Sparks learned Benjamin was meeting with a member of NAACP, Sparks allegedly instructed the headmaster to "engage only in private and less visible contact with African Americans."
And when gay students complained of bullying, the suit alleges, Sparks balked, apparently going so far as to support a group calling for a "homo-caust." Benjamin also claims he was forced to stand in front of the entire school "and defend his Jewish heritage," at the behest of Sparks.
It's this final, ironic facet of the suit that puts the whole thing over:
Benjamin says he was fired and Sparks — who famously wrote "The Notebook" about a couple's love transcending Alzheimer's — telling others in the school to ignore Benjamin's claims because he was suffering from Alzheimer's.
Should these accusations be true, it puts the school's carefully worded pedagogical philosophy in a nasty light. From the school's website:
Our Christian Traditions, ethical commitments toward others, open-hearted faith, and appreciation for diversity, are integral to the honorable values and kindness manifested in the daily life of the school. There is no specific religious doctrine associated with the school nor are there any Statements of Belief, and the inherent dignity of all human beings is celebrated. The school welcomes students, teachers, and administrators of all faith traditions, or indeed, no faith tradition. All students are empowered to learn in a place where the universal commandment to Love God and Your Neighbor as Yourself is an anchoring goal.
The Epiphany School for Global Studies' new headmaster, Dwight Carlblom, is featured on the school website's homepage with the quote, "Every child who walks into our school has become both our responsibility and our privilege."
If you know more about the Sparks family's involvement at the Epiphany School for Global Studies, please email me at aleksander@gawker.com or hop in the comments below.
[Image via AP]