Do Constitutional Rights Apply In The Classroom? One Indiana Teacher is Fighting to Find Out
An elementary school teacher says she's had no peace since four little words she said in a Bloomington, Indiana classroom turned her life upside down and cost her the teaching job she had, plus a ton of money in legal fees.
Deborah Mayer, who now lives in Florida, didn't swear at her students or use any curse words. The four offensive words that she said in front of her students were, "I honk for peace." Mayer said the phrase in response to a student's question about whether or not the teacher would participate in a peace rally. The comment was made on January 10, 2003, the eve of the start of the Iraq war and was in the context of a current events discussion in the class.
Mayer says that after her remark several parents complained and as a result the school district declined to renew her teaching contract for the following year. She decided to stand up for her rights and started a legal battle with the school district over her constitutional rights.
Thomas Wheeler, attorney for the Monroe County Community School Corp., said that Mayer's claim is unfounded. He argues that public school teachers don't have the right to free speech in the classroom because they are bound to the curriculum that is dictated by school officials. Wheeler also says that Mayer wasn't fired over the four words. According to him, her contract was not renewed because she was a bad teacher. Reportedly, even before this incident there had been parent complaints about Mayer because she is a strict disciplinarian and insists on a very structured classroom environment.
Mayer is now appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court over her dismissal from the teaching position in Indiana. She claims that being fired for stating a political view violated her First Amendment right to free speech.
Mayer says that she has, so far, spent $70,000 to pay her attorneys and the legal fees involved in the case. So far the lower courts have agreed with the school district and decided that Mayer did not have the right to free speech in her classroom. The U.S. Supreme Court has not decided yet whether or not they will hear the case.
You would think after spending so much money and getting nowhere with her case that Mayer would be discouraged enough to give up and go on with her life, but she still has hope. As it turns out, she isn't the only one who still thinks she has a chance at winning this case that now seems almost hopeless.
Martin Sweet, who is an assistant professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, thinks that Mayer's case does have a pretty good chance of at least being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. He says that First Amendment rights don't vanish inside the classroom, but the speech must be appropriate to the setting. A teacher who is discussing current events, as Mayer was, may find it appropriate to voice a political opinion, while an English or Science teacher may not have that forum.
Mayer said that during the current events discussion in her classroom the student asked her a question and she responded to it. She never dreamed that her delicate assertion of her opinion would prove so devastating to her.
After her teaching contract was not renewed in Indiana, Mayer moved to Florida to find work. She now teaches reading to sixth-graders in Kissimmee. She was recently given the Defense of Academic Freedom Award from the National Council for the Social Studies.
Mayer hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will agree to hear her case and once and for all set the record straight about what First Amendment rights teachers do and do not have in the classroom. She says she doesn't propose that teachers should be able to say whatever they want in class, but believes that teachers are entitled to respond to students' questions and comments as she did.