CAN A TEACHER BE FIRED FOR REFERRING TO STUDENTS AS “SPAWN OF THE DEVIL” “UTTERLY LOATHSOME” AND “NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS HER SIBLING”????

You won’t be surprised to hear that this is about an English teacher, a woman with a good vocabulary and a colorful writing style.  At first, her blog was a private affair, read by less than a dozen people. But you know how these things work.  It was not password protected, and so….people discovered it. The media discovered it.  The superintendent got a call that probably caught him off guard: Have you read some of the comments Ms. Munroe has made about her students?

The blog was entitled “Where Are We Going and Why Are We In This Handbasket?”  The blog post that drew the most attention featured a depiction of a school bus with a “Short Bus” sign and the following heading: “I DON’T CARE IF YOU LICK THE WINDOWS, TAKE THE SPECIAL BUS OR OCCASIONALLY PEE ON YOURSELF….YOU HANG IN THERE, SUNSHINE; YOU’RE FRIGGIN SPECIAL.”

The blog then included a number of comments Ms. Munroe would like to have included on student report cards. Things like this:

A complete and utter jerk in all ways.

Gimme an A.I.R.H.E.A.D.  What’s that spell?  Your kid!

Just as bad as his sibling. Don’t you know how to raise kids?

Dresses like a street walker.

Whiny, simpering grade-grubber with an unrealistically high perception of own ability level.

Rude, belligerent, argumentative fuck.

Liar and cheater.

Utterly loathsome in all imaginable ways.

There’s no other way to say this.  I hate your kid.

It took the school district more than a year to do it, but they terminated this teacher.  The district asserted in court that her blog posts had nothing to do with it.  That’s hard to believe, seeing as how the district also asserted that the blog posts caused a major disruption of school operations, with students “livid” and large numbers of parents opting their kids out of Ms. Munroe’s classes.

In the end, it didn’t matter. The court held that the blog posts were not constitutionally protected speech.  Therefore, even if the district did fire her because of her comments, the district was on safe ground legally.  The court emphasized the importance of the teacher/student/parent relationship. There must be trust, based on mutual respect. Thus the court concluded that the district legitimately concluded that Ms. Munroe had fractured that relationship of trust.  Key Quotes:

We find that Munroe’s various expressions of hostility and disgust against her students would disrupt her duties as a high school teacher and the functioning of the School District.

Referring to the “…YOU HANG IN THERE, SUNSHINE” remark, the court said:

Even if intended as a comedic exercise, such characterizations speak for themselves. Simply put, they were despicable.

In these days of social media, this is an important decision, confirming the notion that teachers must exercise their free speech rights with thoughtfulness. At a minimum, teachers cannot use their First Amendment rights in ways that destroy the relationship of trust with students and parents.

The case is Munroe v. Central Bucks School District, decided by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on September 4, 2015.  You can find the case at 2015 WL 5167011.

DAWG BONE: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA.