Former American Atheists President David Silverman was fired in 2018 for violating internal policies of the group. At the same time it came out he was a terrible person to a couple of women. Now David is back in public after being hired by Atheist Alliance International. As much as he squawked about getting fired and denying the intent of his sexual harassment of women, his life hasn’t been ruined and he still doesn’t deserve due process.
I won’t rehash all of the Silverman incidents here. Stephanie Zvan at The Orbit does a good job with the timeline here. But I wanted to highlight one statement Silverman said:
On April 10, 2018, I was suspended from American Atheists for very vague reasons and walked out of my office like a criminal. My 22 year career in activism with American Atheists died that day, due to lies. I was given zero due process, and the organization performed zero investigation before firing me, again like a criminal.
Silverman’s website
It does suck when you get walked out of a place employment after being let go. No doubt it hurts. The only recourse someone who works at a private employer is if one had a contract. According to the reports, Silverman’s contract said American Atheists can terminate him for ANY REASON.
In this case, the Board received a complaint and found he had violated their internal policies.
Enough said. The Board voted to fire him based on the information they had. There was no due process because his contract didn’t call for it and the Board of a private group isn’t bound to offer it. He worked at the pleasure of the Board and they decided to let him go.
They could have decided they didn’t like his suit or his haircut. As long as they followed the contract Silverman has no right to due process.
Silverman takes some time off then comes back and files a lawsuit for defamation saying he was fired for financial impropriety – which isn’t supported – and he tries to include the women who accused him of unprofessional behavior – which he admitted to – he says he even sought treatment – in order to drag them through his mud again.
Before the AAI job, he was working the “womenz suck” tour trying to promote his Gofundme campaign for his lawsuit. He is quick to apologize for being part of the “religion of woke” but where is his apology for being a terrible person. A lawsuit isn’t saying you are sorry.
If I were on a board and Silverman was up for a job I wouldn’t vote to hire him. I don’t know how anyone would trust him again.
