Honking Horn Costs Teacher Her Job
An elementary school teacher can be fired for telling her class that she honked her car’s horn in support of demonstrators against the war in Iraq, the Seventh Circuit found.
The appellate court said the teacher had been told that she could teach the controversy about the war in Iraq “drawing out arguments from all perspectives, as long as she kept her opinions to herself. The Constitution does not entitle teacher to present personal views to captive audiences against the instructions of elected officials,” Judge Easterbrook wrote.
The appellate court upheld the district court’s dismissal of the teacher’s lawsuit. The Monroe County (Ind.) Community School Corp. fired Deborah A. Mayer for taking a political stance during a current-events session in her class. Specifically, the court found that “she answered a pupil’s question about whether she participated in political demonstrations by saying that, when she passed a demonstration against this nation’s military operations in Iraq and saw a placard saying ‘Honk for Peace,’ she honked her car’s horn to show her support for the demonstrators.”
The district court concluded that Mayer had a right to express her views on the war in Iraq but not in the classroom. Mayer unsuccessfully argued that she was exercising her “academic freedom.” Judge Easterbrook found that since elementary education is compulsory, the pupils “must ought not be subject to teachers’ idiosyncratic perspectives.” If there is to be any indoctrination, the court said, “the power should be reposed in someone the people can vote out of office, rather than tenured teachers. At least the board’s views can be debated openly, and the people may choose to elect persons committed to neutrality on contentious issues.”
“It is enough to hold that the first amendment does not entitle primary and secondary teachers, when conducting the education of captive audiences, to cover topics, or advocate viewpoints, that depart from the curriculum adopted by the school system,” the appellate court found.
Deborah A. Mayer v. Monroe County Community School Corp., Seventh Cir. No. 06-1993, issued January 24, 2007.