In this Martin Center policy brief, "Scholastic Gag Orders: NDAs, Mandatory Arbitration, and the Legal Threat to Academics," Stephen Baskerville explores how non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) and mandatory arbitration (MA) provide a veil of legally enforced secrecy, shielding administrations from negative publicity, professional…

Monica Williams, a beloved counselor of an urban middle school, is shocked to learn that she is being terminated for a comment she made on Facebook. This case was developed for use in an educational leadership course for students to evaluate an educator's right to freedom of speech in relation to social media. Instructors can use the case to…

In 1988, Richard Morin, a Grade 9 teacher in Prince Edward Island, Canada was removed from the classroom for showing his students a film that was critical of Christian fundamentalism. The ensuing court battle, which eventually resulted in Morin's vindication in 2002, has received surprisingly little attention. I begin the analysis with a careful…

Supreme Court has delineated three-step test to First Amendment cases brought by public employees, including tenured and nontenured teachers' academic freedom cases. Is teacher's conduct "protected expression" that concerns public issue without unduly rocking boat? If so, is protected expression the motivation behind district's adverse…

Summarizes a case involving a Denver high school teacher's naming, in a government class, of a student observed in a public sexual rendezvous. The teacher lost on all fronts, because his speech was considered school-sponsored and did not meet the school district's pedagogical interests, based on the 1988 "Hazelwood" decision limiting…

Explores how, in the 1990s, a new form of censorship emerged in the ever-expanding definition of sexual harassment. Asserts that no greater threat to free speech and individual rights in the university presently exists within the scope of American jurisprudence. Offers cases to support these claims. (EV)

The First Amendment free speech right is one of the most frequently asserted constitutional challenges to dismissal or discipline of a school district employee. In any employee's claim of violation of free speech right by a public employer, a threefold process of review should be made: (1) Was the conduct in question constitutionally protected in…

Discussion of academic freedom and college teacher dismissal first examines the expectations that institutions should have of faculty, traces the history of academic freedom in America, and looks at conditions that might constitute adequate cause for teacher dismissal. Examples are drawn from court litigation. Catalysts in the institutional…

Reviews some legal and procedural guidelines pertaining to freedom of expression and due process in how teachers and administrators handle student verbal or symbolic threats. Reviews school cases related to freedom of expression, written expression, verbal or written expression off school property, and Internet expression. Offers recommendations…

The focus of this chapter is on the substantive constitutional protections of the public school employment relationship guaranteed by the First Amendment, particularly freedom of speech, and by the Fourteenth Amendment's right to privacy. Included are burden-of-proof standards required for establishing a prima facie case of denial of these…

Court litigation and decisions concerning the conflict between first amendment rights of free speech for United States citizens and the rights of controversial international figures, invited by college faculty to speak on campus, are discussed and compared. (MSE)

This volume of seminar presentations covers a broad range of legal issues affecting public schools. The first chapter summarizes employee free speech developments since "Connick v. Myers" (1983), a United States Supreme Court decision upholding a district attorney's right to dismiss a transferred assistant for circulating a controversial…

This paper is part of a collection of 54 papers from the 48th annual conference of the Education Law Association held in November 2002. It discusses teachers' rights to private and public speech. Specifically, it examines the rights of special-education teachers and other special-education professionals to advocate, privately or publicly, on…

Two sets of Supreme Court cases are examined and their links discussed in the context of the recent Jeffries v. Harleston court case concerning the City College of New York. The first pertains to and reflects general protection of academic freedom in public colleges and universities; the second concerns speech rights of public school teachers and…

This book was designed to serve as a legal resource for secondary and elementary school teachers and prospective teachers. Specifically, the book helps teachers become aware of their legal rights and responsibilities in order to avoid violating others' constitutional and statutorial rights in the classroom, and to assert their personal and…