Rights and Responsibilities

Teachers’ Rights and Responsibilities

Applying For a Position Situation:  You finished student teaching and the school district you want to teach in has called you for an interview. Mr. Thomas, from the personnel office, seems impressed with your credentials and the interview is going well. He explains that the school district is very committed to its teachers and invests a great deal of resources in training. He wants to make certain that this investment makes sense, so he asks you for your long-range plans with such questions as: “Do you see yourself teaching in this system for a long time?” and “Are you planning to get married or have children in the near future?” Choices:  You answer the questions realizing that the district is entitled to know about your long-range plans.  You avoid answering the questions. You think it’s none of their business, but you are worried that you won’t get the position.

Legal Decision Not too long ago, school districts regularly considered marital and parenthood status in employment decisions Asked mostly to women rather than men Now, various state and federal laws make these inquiries illegal Interview questions must be related to the job requirements Title IX of the Education Amendments Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

Personal Lifestyle Situation:  After your first few months, your reputation is established: You are known as a creative and effective teacher and are well liked by students and colleagues. But your life outside the classroom is not appreciated by school officials. You are single and living with your “significant other.” Several school officials have strong feelings about this and believe that you are a poor role model for the students. The school system publicly announces that your cohabitation is having a negative influence on your elementary-aged students and suspends you. Choices:  You are the victim of an illegal action and should sue to be reinstated.  The school board is within its rights in dismissing you and removing a bad role model from the classroom.

Legal Decision Employees cannot be fired based on personal lifestyle and behavior unless it disrupts the educational environment or damages their credibility with students, colleagues, or the community

Legal Liability (Negligence) Situation:  You are assigned to cafeteria duty. Things are quiet, and you take the opportunity to call a guest speaker and confirm a visit to your class. While you are gone from the cafeteria, a student slips on some spilled milk and breaks his arm. His parents hold you liable for their son’s injury and sue you for damages. Choices:  You will probably win, because you did not cause the fall and were on educational business when the accident occurred.  The student’s parents will win, because you left your assigned post  The student who spilled the milk is solely responsible for the accident.  No one will win, because the courts long ago ruled that there is no use crying over spilled milk.

Legal Decision Courts generally use two standards in determining negligence:  Whether a reasonable person with similar training would act in the same way  Whether or not the teacher could have foreseen the possibility of an injury Teachers should:  Establish safety rules for students  Try to anticipate and avoid dangerous situations  Warn students of potential danger  Provide proper supervision

Teachers’ Academic Freedom Situation:  As a social studies teacher, you are committed to teaching about the futility of hate and discrimination. You assign your middle school students the fictional mystery The Terrorist, a novel that evokes strong feelings on ethnic and religious issues. Class discussions and activities focus on challenging stereotypes and creating peaceful responses to violence. Your students find the novel engaging, and class discussions are lively and respectful. But in the post-9/11 climate, some parents are upset, and the school board asks you not to teach such a controversial lesson. Committed to your beliefs, you persist. At the end of the school year, you find that your teaching contract is not renewed. Choices:  Because you think your academic freedom has been violated, you decide to sue to get your job back.  You realize that the school board is well within its rights to determine curriculum, that you were warned, and that now you must pay the price for your indiscretion.

Legal Decision The right to academic freedom is not absolute Academic freedom= to teach without coercion, censorship, or other restrictive interference Courts determine this right with the school system’s interests in its students’ learning appropriate subject matter in an environment conducive to learning Factors such as relevance and appropriateness are taken into account

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities

Suspension and Discipline Situation:  You are teaching a difficult class, and one student is the primary source of trouble. After a string of disorderly episodes on this student’s part, the iPads for the entire class mysteriously disappear. You have put up with more than enough, and you send the student to the principal’s office to be suspended. The principal backs you up, and the student is told not to return to school for a week. This action is … Choices:  Legal and appropriate  Illegal

Legal Decision Supreme Court ruled (Goss v. Lopez) that teachers and administrators are required to follow certain procedures to guarantee the student’s due process rights granted by the 14 th amendment In this case, the student must be informed of the rule that has been broken and of the evidence The student is also entitled to give their side of the story in self-defense

Freedom of Speech Situation:  During your class, you notice that several of your more politically active students are wearing T-shirts with a red line drawn through a cell phone. You call them to your desk and ask them about it. They explain that they are protesting the new school board policy that prohibits cell phone use and texting during school hours. You tell them that you share their concern but that wearing the protest T- shirts is specifically forbidden by school rules. You explain that you will let it go this time because they are not disturbing the class routine,,but that if they wear them again, they will be suspended.  The next day, the same students arrive at school still wearing the T- shirts, and you send them to the principal’s office. The students tell the principal that although they understand the rule, they refuse to obey it. The principal suspends tem. The principal’s action is…

Choices:  Legally justified, because the students were given every opportunity to understand and obey the school rule.  Illegal, because the students have the right to wear T-shirts if they so desire.

Legal Decision December Des Moines, Iowa Students demonstrated opposition to the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school The principal asked them to remove the armbands and suspended them when they refused Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District Supreme Court ruled- students entitled to wear armbands as long as it didn’t disrupt the classroom environment

Search and Seizure Situation:  The drug problem in your school is spreading, and it is clear that strong action is needed. School authorities order a search of all student lockers, which lasts for several hours. Trained police dogs are brought in, and each classroom is searched for drugs. The school principal randomly chooses several students, who are taken to the locker rooms and strip-searched. Choices:  School authorities are well within their rights to conduct these searches  Searching the lockers is legal, but strip searching is inappropriate and illegal  No searches are called for, and all these activities present illegal and unconstitutional violation of student rights

Legal Decision Courts ruled that school authorities have fewer restrictions than do the police in search and seizure activities School has a responsibility (loco parentis) to protect children and to respond to reasonable concerns about their health and safety A student's locker may be searched by a school official if there is reasonable suspicion Random strip searches violate students’ rights under the 14 th amendment (privacy and due process rights)