The Five Freedoms Project

You Be The Judge

Test your knowledge of the Five Freedoms and see how you match up to the courts...and fellow citizens.

May 2009

Teacher Speech in Public Schools

During a class discussion of an article about peace marches in protest of U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Deborah Mayer, a probationary teacher at Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana, voiced the opinion that peace was preferable to war and said she personally supported the peace marchers. When parents complained, the school’s principal told all teachers to refrain from taking sides in political controversies in class. When the school district later failed to renew her contract, Ms. Mayer sued, alleging that the decision was based on her political expression and violated her First Amendment right to free speech.

May school officials prohibit teachers from expressing their personal opinions in class?

Vote Now!

  • 35%
    A. NO
    At the heart of any culture of learning is the basic principle of academic freedom. To micromanage what and how teachers engage students in their coursework is not just a violation of the First Amendment; it’s bad policy.
  • 36%
    B. YES
    As public employees, public school teachers do not enjoy the same free-expression rights while they are fulfilling their official duties as educators.
  • 29%
    C. NO
    The First Amendment exists to protect each individual’s right to say whatever he or she wants to say. The courts have a responsibility to intervene any time that basic right is violated in the name of power or authority.

  • Incorrect

    Generally, teachers in primary and secondary schools do not have a constitutional right to determine what they say in class. This, the court noted, was "not a novel question in this circuit." As the Seventh Circuit ruled in a separate case from 1990, “authorities charged by state law with curriculum development [may] require the obedience of subordinate employees, including the classroom teacher . . . because the school system does not ‘regulate’ teachers’ speech as much as it hires that speech."

  • Correct!

    In a short, unanimous panel decision (Mayer v. Monroe County, 2007) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that Mayer’s free speech rights were not violated. "Children who attend school because they must,” the court explained, “ought not be subject to teachers’ idiosyncratic perspectives."

  • Incorrect

    The First Amendment is a limitation on what government may or may not do – it is not a limitation on the private speech of individuals. Because public school teachers are state employees, their free-speech rights are therefore limited in ways they would not be as private citizens.

Remember — US Supreme Court decisions outline "the law of the land." Lower court decisions do not. Sometimes, this means different lower courts will issue contradicting opinion.

DO YOU AGREE WITH THE COURT’S DECISION? WHY OR WHY NOT?

Visit the Soapbox at network.fivefreedoms.org to share your voice!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE COURT'S DECISION?

0 responses to Teacher Speech in Public Schools

Add your own response.