Posted on 10/04/2007 7:02:27 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Supreme Court rebuffs case of teacher fired for comments Tamara Lytle
Washington Correspondent
October 3, 2007
WASHINGTON
Kissimmee Middle School teacher Deborah Mayer's long, lonely and expensive legal fight over a war-related classroom comment ended with two words.
"Cert denied," her attorney e-mailed her, which is legalese for the U.S. Supreme Court dismissing her appeal without hearing it. Mayer was fired in Bloomington, Ind., in 2003 after a classroom current-events discussion about peace protesters during which she said "I honk for peace."
Mayer claimed her dismissal was an abridgment of her First Amendment right to free speech and a dangerous precedent for teachers nationally. The Bloomington school district said it fired her because she wasn't a good teacher.
The Supreme Court, on its first day of its term Monday, decided to let stand a lower-court ruling in favor of the district. The court gave no explanation, which is not unusual.
Tim Lenz, political-science professor at Florida Atlantic University, said the court issued only 74 decisions last year out of about 8,000 cases appealed to the justices. In addition, Mayer's loss was not a surprise because recent court decisions have favored administrators in lawsuits by government employees and students, Lenz said.
Mayer said her troubles started on Jan. 10, 2003 -- the eve of the Iraq war -- during a weekly current-events discussion in her Grades 4-6 class at Clear Creek Elementary School. A pupil asked her if she would participate in a peace rally.
"I honk for peace," Mayer, a veteran teacher in her first year at Bloomington, said she told them. She said she also told the students, "People ought to seek out peaceful solutions before going to war."
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Yes...and you apparently flunk your job for peace too.
“’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 appeals court ruled.”
This MUST be the standard for all education, K-12 and college.
“”People ought to seek out peaceful solutions before going to war.””
yeah, we did that idiot.
You should be dismissed for being a moron.
I’m a teacher...and I am embarrassed that this ignorant person doesn’t know that her right to free speech does not include the right to indoctrinate her students contrary to the curriculum approved by the school. She flunks in every way...and is a poster child for what the NEA led teacher’s unions have done to our educational system.
Now, if only Revisionist History and the materials used to teach it by the Socialist-led NEA and AFT were also covered, the indoctrination of youth to the Socialist Manifesto would be removed.
This is an excellent precedent for all the socialist, leftist classroom politicians that INFEST OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM. Choke on it, libs.
“You should be dismissed for being a moron.”
The school district did say they dismissed her because she was not a good teacher.
I rather doubt the school fired her merely for making those few statements. But of course, as a leftist, she would never admit she was to blame for her own job loss. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Wrong. The SC is the final appeals court in cases like hers. That she doesn't realize that when she lost her original case, she had her day in court - she should be thrown from teaching for cause - cluelessness.
Fact is, it doesn't provide any employee that privilege.
“I have gone all the way to the Supreme Court and I have still not had my day in court,”
I think I hear that little violin in the background playing “My Heart Bleeds for You.”
One can only hope it was an extremely expensive lesson learned....
nah, no chance.
This schmuck has no clue as to the difference between education and indoctrination...any more than she understands the meaning of the First Ammendment.
Translation: "I have a problem with us defending ourselves anytime we have a Republican president".
Mayer said her troubles started on Jan. 10, 2003 -- the eve of the Iraq war...Jan. 10, 2003 was NOT the eve of the Iraq war. That would be like saying Christmas Eve really falls on Columbus Day.
This proves that she's a moonbat all around, and was not necessarily just opposed to the Iraq war itself.
wasn’t it 12 years on negotiations within the UN Security Council and elsewhere. Saddam had every opportunity to wage peace with the US and West, he wanted war.
wasn’t it 12 years on negotiations within the UN Security Council and elsewhere. Saddam had every opportunity to wage peace with the US and West, he wanted war.
There used to be four primary rules for teachers on how to get fired:
1) Offend and anger your students.
2) Offend and anger their parents.
3) Offend and anger the other teachers and administrators.
4) Offend and anger the community.
Hotheads and radicals who become teachers are always horrified to learn that they are not permitted to use their podium as a soapbox to rant and rave in front of their students. They regard this as totally unfair, as it goes against their entire reason for wanting to “teach” in the first place.
There are, of course, other rules, some of which are not as obvious, such as “teachers are never fired for passing too many students”, “you should not have sex with your students”, and “never hit a student in front of witnesses, or in a way that leaves a mark.”
The lefties always do that last resort thing—trouble is they never want to admit it’s time for that last resort.
Yup.
"Saddam had every opportunity to wage peace with the US and West,"
Yup.
"he wanted war."
Yup.
...& war's what he got.
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