252
CHAPTER 9: Legal Aspects of Education
Overview 9.1 Selected US Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Teachers’ Rights and Responsibilities Case
Summary of Decision
Pickering v. Board of Education (1968)
Teachers may speak their opinions as long as the school’s regular operation is not disrupted.
Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth (1972)
After the probationary period, teachers have a property interest in continued employment.
Cleveland Board of Education v. LeFleur (1974)
Boards of education may establish leave policies for pregnant teachers, but these policies may not contain arbitrary leave and return dates.
Hortonville District v. Hortonville Education Association (1976)
In a due-process hearing a school board may be the impartial body conducting the hearing.
Washington v. Davis (1976)
Underrepresentation of a group in the workforce does not, in itself, prove unconstitutional employment discrimination, but the employer in this situation must prove that hiring has not been discriminatory.
School Board of Nassau County v. Arline (1987)
Dismissing a teacher because of a physical impairment or contagious disease is unconstitutional.
Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association (1991)
Employees who are not union members cannot be required to pay dues used for political purposes unrelated to collective bargaining agreements.
Pickering and similar decisions would not be applicable to teachers in schools not publicly funded. The civil rights of private- and parochial-school teachers—tenure, freedom of expression, due process, and the like—depend primarily on the terms of their individual contracts with the school.
Verbal and Emotional Abuse of Students Teachers’ rights to freedom of expression do not extend, of course, to verbal or emotional abuse of students. Teachers can be sued and/or suspended or dismissed for engaging in such behavior. For example, a teacher who also served as a basketball and football coach was accused of using terms (while coaching) such as “tontos” in dealing with Native American students and “jungle bunnies” in referring to African American students. Although allowed to continue teaching science and physical education, he was suspended from coaching for unprofessional conduct. Another teacher’s name was placed on a statewide child abuse registry after a student’s mother alleged that the teacher had ridiculed her son’s weight and pinched his cheeks. Other teachers have had their employment terminated or interrupted for directing obscene curses at students they perceived as troublesome or for persistently using sarcasm and ridicule to pressure or embarrass students. Teachers also can be sued personally under civil liability or criminal statutes by parents who believe their children have been injured by verbal or emotional abuse or even by allegedly vulgar materials assigned by the teacher.12
Perry A. Zirkel and Ivan B. Gluckman, “Verbal Abuse of Students,” Principal (May 1991), pp. 51–52; Mark Walsh, “‘Slave Ship’ Case Settled,” Education Week (July 8, 1998); Edwin C. Darden, “The Words That Wound,” American School Board Journal (March 2008), pp. 42–43; and “Ed Law Briefly: Teacher Who Verbally Insults Young Student Can Be Listed on a Statewide Child Abuse Registry,” Real Clear Education (September 16, 2014), available at www.realcleareducation .com.
12
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
