‘Honk for Peace’ Case Tests Limits on Free Speech
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - When one of Deborah Mayer’s elementary school students asked her on the eve of the Iraq war whether she would ever take part in a peace march, the veteran teacher recalls answering, “I honk for peace.”
Soon afterward, Mayer lost her job and her home in Indiana. She was out of work for nearly three years. And when she complained to federal courts that her free-speech rights had been violated, the courts replied, essentially, that as a public school teacher she didn’t have any.
As a federal appeals court in Chicago put it in January, a teacher’s speech is “the commodity she sells to an employer in exchange for her salary.” The Bloomington, Ind., school district had just as much right to fire Mayer, the court said, as it would have if she were a creationist who refused to teach evolution.
The ruling was legally significant. Eight months earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had decided in a case involving the Los Angeles district attorney’s office that government employees were not protected by the First Amendment when they faced discipline for speaking at work about controversies related to their jobs. The Chicago appeals court was the first to apply the same rationale to the classroom, an issue that the Supreme Court expressly left unresolved.
But legal analysts said the Mayer ruling was probably less important as a precedent than as a stark reminder that the law provides little protection for schoolteachers who express their beliefs.
As far as the courts are concerned, “public education is inherently a situation where the government is the speaker, and … its employees are the mouthpieces of the government,” said Vikram Amar, a professor at UC’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Whatever academic freedom exists for college teachers is “much, much less” in public schools, he said.
A recent case from a Los Angeles charter school offers more evidence of the limits teachers face in choosing curricula or seeking redress of grievances. The school’s administrators forbade seventh-graders from reading aloud at a February assembly the award-winning poem “A Wreath for Emmett Till,” about a black teenager beaten to death by white men in 1955.
In an online guide to teaching the poem in grades seven and up, publisher Houghton Mifflin recommends telling students that it will be disturbing; administrators said they feared it would be too much for the kindergartners in the audience and then explained that Till’s alleged whistle at a white woman was inappropriate. When social studies teacher Marisol Alba and a colleague signed letters of protest written by students at the largely African American school, both teachers were fired.
The Mayer ruling was disappointing but not surprising, said Michael Simpson, assistant general counsel of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union. For the last decade, he said, federal courts “have not been receptive to arguments that teachers, both K-12 and higher education, have free-speech rights in the classroom.”
That’s unacceptable, said Mayer, 57, who now teaches seventh-graders in Haines City, Fla. She said she’s scraped up enough money, by selling her car, to appeal her case to the Supreme Court, though she doubts the justices will review it.
“If a teacher can be fired for saying those four little words — ‘I honk for peace’ — who’s going to want to teach?” she asked. “They’re taking away free speech at school. … You might just as well get a big television and set it in front of the children and have them watch, (using) the curriculum the school board has.”
On the other hand, said Francisco Negrón, lawyer for the National School Boards Association, if teachers were free to express their viewpoints in class, school boards would be less able to do their job of determining the curriculum and complying with government demands for accountability.
“Teachers bring their creativity, their energy, their skill in teaching the curriculum, but … a teacher in K-12 is really not at liberty to design a curriculum,” said Negrón, who filed arguments with the court in Mayer’s case supporting the Bloomington school district. “That’s the function of the school board.”
The incident occurred in January 2003, when Mayer was teaching a class of fourth- through sixth-graders at Clear Creek Elementary School. As Mayer recalled it later, the question about peace marches arose during a discussion of an article in the children’s edition of Time magazine, part of the school-approved curriculum, about protests against U.S. preparations for war in Iraq.
When the student asked the question about taking part in demonstrations, Mayer said, she replied that there were peace marches in Bloomington, that she blew her horn whenever she saw a “Honk for Peace” sign, and that people should seek peaceful solutions before going to war.
A student complained to her father, who complained to the principal, who canceled the school’s annual “Peace Month” observance and told Mayer never to discuss the war or her political views in class.
Mayer, who had been hired after the semester started and had received a good job evaluation before the incident, was dismissed at the end of the school year. The school said it was for poor performance, but the appeals court assumed that she had been fired for her comments and said the school had acted legally.
“Teachers hire out their own speech and must provide the service for which employers are willing to pay,” a three-judge panel of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Jan. 24. “The Constitution does not entitle teachers to present personal views to captive audiences against the instructions of elected officials.”
Mayer, the court said, was told by her bosses that she could teach about the war “as long as she kept her opinions to herself.” Like the Los Angeles district attorney’s employee whose demotion led to the Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling, the appellate panel said, Mayer had no constitutional right to say anything on the job that conflicted with her employer’s policy.
Mayer’s lawyer asked for a rehearing, saying the evidence was clear that the school had no such policy when Mayer answered the student’s question. The court denied reconsideration in March without comment.
Mayer, who had taught for more than 20 years, couldn’t afford to keep her Indiana home after being fired and left the state. She got another teaching job in Florida, but lost it after disclosing her previous dismissal, and didn’t get another position until last fall.
As all parties to Mayer’s case recognize, her statements would have been constitutionally protected and beyond the government’s power to suppress if she had been speaking on a street corner or at a public hearing.
But in the classroom, as in the workplace, courts have upheld limits on speech. In both settings, past rulings have taken into account the institution’s need to function efficiently and keep order, and the rights of co-workers and students not to be subjected to unwanted diatribes.
In 1969, the Supreme Court upheld a high school student’s right to wear a black armband as a silent protest against the Vietnam War and barred schools from stifling student expression unless it was disruptive or interfered with education. The court retreated from that standard somewhat in a 1988 ruling upholding censorship of student newspapers, and will revisit the issue in a pending case involving an Alaskan student who was suspended for unfurling a banner outside the school grounds that read, “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
The Supreme Court has never ruled on teachers’ free speech. In lower courts, teachers have won cases by showing they were punished for violating policies that school officials never explained to them beforehand or invented after the fact. A federal appeals court in 2001 ruled in favor of a fifth-grade teacher in Kentucky who was fired for bringing actor Woody Harrelson to her class to discuss the benefits of industrial hemp, an appearance that school officials had approved.
But teachers who were on notice of school policies they transgressed have usually lost their cases. In one Bay Area case, in August 2005, a federal judge in San Jose rejected arguments by Cupertino elementary school teacher Stephen Williams that his principal had violated his freedom of speech by prohibiting him from using outside religious materials in history lessons.
Unless the Supreme Court takes up Mayer’s case, its legal effect is limited to federal courts in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, the three states in the Seventh Circuit. But Amar, the Hastings law professor, and others said the ruling could be influential elsewhere because there are few appellate decisions on the issue, and because the author, Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook, is a prominent conservative jurist.
“Very few schools are going to be that harsh in muzzling or silencing their teachers,” but the ruling indicates they would be free to do so, Amar said.
Simpson, the National Education Association’s lawyer, said the ruling, though within the legal mainstream, was bad for education because teachers are not “hired to read a script.” The case might interest the Supreme Court, and the NEA will probably file a brief in support of Mayer’s appeal should the justices take the case, he said.
Beverly Tucker, chief counsel of the NEA-affiliated California Teachers Association, said she doubts that federal courts in California would take as conservative a position as the court in Mayer’s case. But she expects school districts to cite the ruling in the next case that arises.
“If I were a public school teacher, I would live in fear that some innocuous remark made in the classroom in response to a question from a pupil would lead to me being terminated” under such a ruling, Tucker said.
As for Mayer, she isn’t sure what rankles her most — the impact on her life, the stigma of being branded a rogue teacher, or the court’s assertion that a teacher’s speech is a commodity purchased by the government.
“My free speech,” she said, “is not for sale at any price.”
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com
© 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
My question is this: Does anyone know exactly how many teachers were fired for displaying a yellow or red-white-blue ribbon saying “Support the Troops”? If none, then I think that Deborah Mayers ought to be given all her back pay and the Bloomington School Board and the City of Bloomington be heavily fined for civil rights violations. In the last six years I have seen our Constituion desecrated and ignored by our neo-Nazi government. What will it take to awaken the brain-dead?
Right on! Teachers are information transfer coordinators not real people who have real opinions and who should actually *gasp* hold an honest conversation with young minds! The horror! Why someone might say something “controversial” and we can’t have that. If only we had schools full of nice young white boys who all thought alike, then Judge Easterbrook wouldn’t have to be bothered by all this prattle and we could get on with the business of winning the war!
Not to deflect from the topic but a Police Dept. in Ferndale/Royal Oak, MI ticketed protesters who stood on street corners holding signs saying ‘Honk for Peace’, saying a horn was supposed to be used for signaling other motorists, not for political statements.
It seems that ANY protest of the Iraq mess is just too much for this administration to tolorate.
School boards are usually comprised of peoople from the community who have time to perform this function. Are these people really qualified to design a challenging curriculum? For the most part, their educational background and world view is somewhat limited. I think that we should leave education to the trained educator and the school board should stick to the nuts & bolts of running the school district. Educators don’t meddle with the insurance or engineering business because they don’t have backgrounds in those areas & school boards shouldn’t design curriculum. If this dangerous trend continues, propogandizing our youth by TV would be much cheaper and get the same results.
Little wonder so many university freshmen are so ill-prepared for any kind of exercise in academic critical thinking.
I so used to want to be a public school teacher, even with the lousy pay. The notion was pure hope and optimism. Stories like this reassure me that I was right to choose another path.
If I were working under such conditions where it were necessary to walk on eggshells to not express an appropriate, reasonable, but possibly not approved opinion then I would be receptive to the activities of union organizers.
And if they could fire me for an opinion on the school grounds, what about in a supermarket if I were talking with a friend where one of my students overheard my thoughts and reported to a parent who disaproved?
From what I read, she was simply answering a student’s question, and she answered honestly. It would have set a bad example for the children if she had done otherwise.
Well, now Lincoln, Nebraska and Bloomington, Indiana have made my list of American cities where I will not spend any time or money. My map is quickly filling in, as the government and its agents remove the rights of individuals. I highly suggest others keep their own maps.
I got a better idea! If they think “honk for peace” creates an uproar, how about “honk if you hate Bush!”? Oh yeah the “horns are only for a traffic hazard” thingy. Well how about put onb your hazard flashers if you want to see Bush impeached?” Hello, Hello? Is anybody listening. By the way tomorrow to show solidarity with big oil don’t buy gas!
I don’t think there is any question that laws are often applied subjectively, depending on the whims of those in power. It’s a ridiculous abuse of power IMHO.
But, you have to ask yourself if you would have the same response to a teacher that said, “I honk for Jesus.” Personally, the thought scars this shite out of me. (have you seen the movie “Jesus Camp”?).
I would have to say that both phrases should be tolerated, and ultimately, it’s up to parents how they choose to raise (read: indoctrinate) their kids.
And if the signs had said “Honk if you
Support our Troops” ???
I was in Florida, there was daily,“Honk if you Support our Troops” ralles. you could hear them making noise half mile away.
first of all, the teacher was using a euphemism (such as heck vs hell) by saying she honked for peace. i think she must have been a good teacher, because she answered the student’s question honestly.
secondly, all my teachers had their first amendment rights, and i turned out all right. schmitthausler actually threw chalk at some students. i learned that the constitution is a big deal and i’d better support it. what did the pResident learn?
i hope everyone realizes that this would happen under a President Kucinich as well. but clearly silencing dissent is the preferential option for the powerful, thus we need to remove power from the equation.
According to a tiny bit of Googling, apparently there’s some misinformation in this story, such as she lives in Portland, Oregon, not Haines City, Florida, and she is not employed. However, I found two ways to contribute to her legal defense fund, and I’ve already sent a contribution via PayPal:
To contribute by PayPal, go to this URL: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr
To Contribute by Mail:
Deb Mayer Legal Defense Fund
c/o Amcore Bank
14 West Mifflin Street #101
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
This thing has my blood boiling! WHAT’S WRONG WITH SUGGESTING PEACE might be worth trying before going to war? How could that be controversial? How could one parent do so much damage?
What makes you state that a Pres Kucinich would tolerate such an assault on our Constitution? What happened to this teacher is a true outrage. When will the so-called citizens of this country wake up and realize their children are being trained to become good little worker bees for the multi-nationals? You better not know how to think for yourself or you won’t be able to stay employed by them!
I am totally disgusted with this country….
I grew up an hour from Bloomington and went to a high school in which my junior English teacher expressed his belief that we needed more war. It was a place where men got a chance to be men and all of us could use that (referring the males in my class only, of course.) When I answered that I was a pacifist and did not agree that war was glorious, my teacher threw a punch at me. This man taught another ten years (my family pushed for his termination as a teacher) as chairment of the Terre Haute South Vigo high school English department. It is instructive that glorifying war and throwing a punch at a student (and a minor) did not warrant punishment of any sort, while the words, “I honk for peace,” were enough to terminate. Spread the hate!
This only one more method of the RepubliNazis trying to destroy public education, by demoralizing teachers and making them afraid to do anything but teach to the No Child Left tests. The RepubliNazis want privatized schools under either corporate or church control, and are doing whatever it takes…. demoralize teachers, vent funds to construction companies instead of classrooms, bash legitimate teachers’ unions, allow their mafia members to pump schools full of drugs and chaos so private schools will ‘look good’ by comparison, and stop teaching anything but how to be a good helpless passive slave and surrender to a mistakenly ‘higher’ power. To the RepubliNazis, everything is a ‘business’ and the public schools are being hazed by corporate takeover politics, intentionally crippled. They want good teachers to quit and change professions — they want to Destroy Public Education and create corporate zombie factories. Will we let them?
It’s ironic that kids take a ‘Hands Are Not For Hurting’ pledge in schools to learn nonviolent ways of resolving disagreements, but a teacher is punished for admitting one small pro-peace viewpoint.
This whole thing sounds a lot like totalitarian regimes where kids are used to snitch on adults who don’t toe the party line.
What is allowed, or tolerated, in schools, varies from district and state to district and state, as we all know.
A good friend of mine was irate when her then 13 year old daughter and then 13 year old niece both reported in a Saturday AM “home ec” class the teacher had told the girls that men who wear an earring in their left ear are straight, men who wear an earring in their right ear are gay, and men who wear one in both ears are bisexual.
My friend has no problems with gays. (I’m gay.) But she felt that (A) the total sum of the information was incorrect, and (B) that it was inapproriate for that class.
She got nowhere with this situation.
These two cousins are close, as some kids are, and they were both going to the bathroom, a part time substitute looked at them, and said in front of everyone, criticizing them, because they wanted to go to the bathroom at the same time, “What? Are you two lesbians?”
In this case, she was assured that the part time substitute would not get allowed to work there again.
On the one hand, if we trample on a teacher’s freedom of expression, we stiffle their art of teaching, leaving the stale science of it alone, and the kids are cheated.
As noted above, there are things that are outlandish, but they are rare.
I lost my teaching job in 2005 for speaking out about special ed kids who were inappropriately placed in my classroom and barred from the teaching profession. The judicial system did not help me. The above story is only the tip of the iceburg. Teachers are being silenced all over the nation and lives are careers routinely taken away in order to keep the status quo. We are sitting at the back of the bus in the economic hierarchy. See http://www.endteacherabuse.org/
I guess we were under the misapprehension that schools are about education. Gagging teachers is echoed by the gagging of students. NO ONE has any free speech rights in schools. It’s about indoctrination, not teaching people how to think.
Only because I had a union that supported me, was I reinstated in my job as an OCEAN LIFEGUARD for an erstwhile non-termination offense.
The real reason for my termination was revealed at the termination hearing when a loosed mouthed boss in frustration admitted that I had “embarrassed the County on several occassions with my (anti-war, Marxist)political activity”.
Thanks to his foolish honesty and he efforts of my Union…I was reinstated.
Freedom of speech is a myth in any society. At least in Cuba they admit there is a limit to political expression.
As a public school educator (high school civics), I dance this dance on a daily basis. I’m always looking over my shoulder and have had a scrape or two. One has to be careful and develop a set of skills to respond to attacks . . . one of them being to invite the opposition as guest speaker, in class, in a transparent and high profile way. This has a dramatic effect, in my experience. The defensive posture of an opponent diminishes greatly. And, after all, this technique fulfills the promise of free speech in a way that only the obtuse can criticize. The cool thing is that these conservative demagogues usually embarrass themselves. I’ve also been on a school board. My assessment of public education overall is that it is a very conservative institution, and leftists/progressives need to be very careful. Free speech? A goal, and no more. I agree with sentiments expressed here that education is about indoctrination and producing compliant, obedient citizens with the inability to think critically, even though educators — get this — publicly support critical thinking skills. There are a few of us out there that know what’s going on and fight it. It’s hard.
After VT why wasn’t bullying discussed in a round table discussion in classrooms to reach some understanding of the problem?
The official solution I see is a type of “just say no to Bullying” or “cool kids don’t bully” campaign posters; pretty empty.
So now we know the right response to the ? to a teacher, would you ever take part in a peace march. I am not allowed to answer that.
When the student asks, Why? She can then reply she can’t express any personal opinion other than the official position of the school board and if the student wants their position, she would be happy to obtain that.
We think of schools as ‘public’ places, and are surprised when a teacher’s (or a student’s) freedom of speech is abridged.
But the great majority of us work at corporate offices/outlets, where freedom of speech ends the minute we clock in.
It doesn’t resume when we clock out, either - if I were, on my own time, to write a letter to the editor expressing a controversial opinion, and I identified myself as an employee of X corporation in doing so, no judge would disallow my termination.
Corporate circumscription of employees’ constitutional rights is taken as such a given that we don’t feel any outrage at all about it. Could it be that it’s a good part of how we got in this fascist mess to begin with?
While I agree that the firing of Mayer is an outrage, I am also outraged when my children’s public elementary school teachers intentionally try to propagate their Christian beliefs in class. The precedents in the Creationism/evolution debate establish that school boards can and should be able to regulate the speech of public school teachers. The idea that public school teachers should be permitted totally unfettered free speech opens the floodgates to the real possibility of religious indoctrination. It is unlikely that the courts will be able to craft a general principle to cover all cases.
If we imagine a case where a teacher went to the extreme of spending most of her time ranting against the war or teaching creationism or the salvific effect of belief in Christ rather than teaching the math lesson, then the school administration would be warranted in releasing her; not because of the content of the ranting, but because of the failure to achieve the aims for which she was hired.
Mayer was (in my view) achieving the aim for which she was hired. After all, part of what we want education to achieve is to enable kids to develop the ability to think critically for themselves.
The facts are that in the U.S. you have free speech as long as you don’t use it. Only unpopular speech is opposed. You can say any hateful thing as long as it is the popular hate speech of the day.
Over a half century ago, I graduated from a high school which is now celebrating a significant anniversary by presenting outstanding graduates at the formal celebration. You would recognize many of their names and achievements.
There teachers ruled and parents backed them.
One teacher, Phi Beta Kappa key dangling from a chain on her belt, taught sociology rigorously leading many of her students to think her a communist. When I asked my mother I wanted her to report her to the principal, she replied that I’d be the laughing stock in the faculty lounge if she did.
Another teacher taught us a science course in which we had to prick our fingers to draw blood which we were to examine under a microscope. The instrument looked to us like a blunt ice pick and we all used the same pick. (Who would’ve dared not since she dealt in shaming!) She insisted we label our drawings as we “would be required to do in college”…all labels parallel, one directly under the other with parallel dotted lines leading from item to label. She made a great display of drawings which did not meet her criteria and threw them in the waste basket.
One teacher joked that free speech was for people and that by definition teens were not people, that the government was “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” which meant those eligible to vote.
Does it amaze you that we all became strong adults who had jobs, children who work, all of whom are fairly sane and who know how to dress and write appropriate letters, are kind, who vote and take time for church and good works…most of the time.
Oh yes! I learned early on to count the cost of what to say as well as the way to say it. Ya learn that every day at home before they turn you loose on the world.
What’s also sad is that many teachers today have to purchase supplies used in classrooms.
Nanoo and peachmcd,
good observations.
This probably explains, even in the face of the current outrages, the iron rule in the USA that political or ideological issues are not to be discussed with friends, in the work place, in bars, with family, or anywhere else. Keep conversations to sports, movie stars, TV, American Idol, and maybe the weather - but only if you don’t remark on how warm the weather’s been the past few years.
Curious, can anyone tell me if such social strictures against discussion of politics or ideological issues in bars, cafe’s or other public places can be found outside the US?
Would she have been fired for saying, “I’m going to church on Sunday.”?! Progressives need to listen closely for conservative religious/political infiltration of their childrens’ classrooms and nip that stuff in the bud. Have every remark outside the Homeland’s propagandized curriculum brought up for review. Maybe when 99% of teachers have lost their jobs for being real people, teaching real things, conservatives will see the folly of their Hitler-esque ways. (I’m not holding my breath on that last one.)
Maybe the US government will implement a program to import new teachers from China to fill our Amerikan schools with obedient servants…
Hey, this reminds me of the pastor being called to the IRS carpet for saying Jesus was a peacemaker, while conservatives preached religious/political hatred from the pulpit every Sunday. These are scary times indeed!
as a teenager i wondered why teachers were such card board characters. i guess this is why. how can they inspire the students if their personalities are so suppressed. maybe that’s it, they teach us to suppress our personalities by suppressing theirs. just becomes a silent aggreement.
Stilba is right, there is no emphasis on critical thinking, only on obedience and indoctrination. I have seen the results of this kind of “education” in college students who have a shocking inability to think, analyze, critique, or argue without resorting to hyperbole and ad hominems.
Teachers are NOT robot slaves of the government as the conservatives in power would like them to be. They are people with opinions and though their primary job should be to teach kids to critically think for themselves, their opinions will show through with every word they say despite these stupid laws strangling our freedoms. Public education is in such a sorry state with these ridiculous standardized tests and concrete curriculum, it is the teachers themselves that save kids from becoming capitalist drones. I say Teach Peace!
Here is a great statement on what it means to be biased as a teacher. Yes, we need to be biased in favor of the truth.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/rg/RGBiased.shtml
When I recounted this story to my wife, she responded that there had to be other pobelems between her and the admin.
She has taught some herself and didn’t believe the teacher could be fired for this one incident, unless it was specifically prohibited by policy in the teachers handook or posted somewhere. I was unable to rebut her point.
Anyone know any history about it?
OK, she was actually fired almost 2 years after her remarks - as a result of a organized campaign of “patriotic” parents against her that also included probable phoney harassment complaints. Basically a classic witchhunt - now given an imprimatur of the juciciary.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Educators_face_blowback_for_protesting_war_0209.html
As a former teacher I can tell you my observations. Of the teachers who started with me (30 years ago - I lasted 7 years), none of the better teachers were still teaching ten years later. The reason was not the students but the administration who did not want thinking going on in classrooms. Education was, and is, equated with filling a bottle using a funnel and curriculum, the teacher is considered to be the funnel, nothing more!
You United Staters seem to be re-inventing the Middle Ages. First your top Jurists abolish Habeas Corpus (circa 1218) next you abolish Free Speech even ordinary speech on a non political topic (War and Peace) ,next you probably take us back to Augustus (14BCE) when Georgie W. B.will proclaim himself War President after he declares war on Iran ,Russia and China.So dont expect anything but proforma elections After a suitable time he will declare himself Emperor circa 2015.
Full circle.
Can’t happen to USA ers? Think again. The Romans had a republic with checks and balances from 509-44 BCE. They had checks and balances etc but the Senate became too rich and powerful and very politicised just like your Senate of Billionaires and Millionaires, Corrution set in with a military industrial-complex which needed stable outlets for its production.So julius C took over,was assasinated and then his nephew later taking the title Augustus…
Enjoy the ride . It will be rough for some .(Cicero was strangled on orders of Augustus.). People of the world are hunkering down for passive resistance to your imperial designs.But will anyone dare to be a teacher(after what happened to Seneca)??