The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has challenged a recent court victory for a former school police officer who claimed he constantly was harassed by his black superiors and eventually fired because he was white.

A Hamilton County Chancery Court jury in April awarded Sean Shelton $300,000 for “emotional distress” after a lengthy trial in which his attorneys put on evidence of a hostile work environment that they claimed led to his firing in 2004.

Mr. Shelton’s black supervisor at the time, Cpl. Rebecca Tolbert, admitted on the witness stand that “black people don’t like white people.” She told other people that Mr. Shelton was a “psycho,” a “misogynist” and capable of “rape,” though she justified her actions by testifying that she was “scared” of him.

In court documents filed last week, attorneys for the school claim the jury’s award amounted to a financial “windfall” for Mr. Shelton, who had sought only back pay of about $28,000, his annual salary.

“(The jury’s award) was more than 1,000 percent of the economic damages (Mr. Shelton) claimed,” the documents state. “Given the facts of this case ... the jury was ‘sending Defendant a message,’ which is not an appropriate award.”

The school is asking Chancellor Howell Peoples to reduce the verdict. A hearing on the matter will take place in July.

While the new filings do not indicate a full-blown appeal of the case, university spokesman Chuck Cantrell indicated Tuesday in an e-mail that the school is not backing down.

“We are considering all avenues of appeal,” Mr. Cantrell said.

“We just hope that the verdict will stand,” said Donna Mikel, one of two attorneys who represented Mr. Shelton at the trial.

Jurors had expressed outrage toward the school after the court proceeding.

“This judgment is our way of making a statement and bringing about change from the leadership down,” said the jury forewoman, who did not want her name printed because she was afraid of retaliation. “No class of citizen should be protected over another class of citizen. Not in this day and time.”

But the school argues that the jury members’ verdict was misguided regardless of their feelings toward the university’s police department, since Mr. Shelton failed to provide proof of emotional distress.

“Mr. Shelton was out of work only briefly” after being fired for violating department policies, the school said in court documents.

The school argued that jurors also were not allowed to hear testimony about Mr. Shelton’s psychological evaluation after his termination, which apparently indicated his emotional distress came from his “excessive use of alcohol,” “emotional immaturity” and “narcissistic personality traits” — not harassment or race discrimination while working for the university’s police department.

“The jury had no opportunity to consider these alternative explanations ... which would have almost certainly reduced the jury’s compensatory award,” documents state.