A federal district court ruled that because her speech was work-related, a special-ed teacher could be fired for opposing the paddling of one of her autustic students for disruptive behavior. -db
A special-education teacher in Booneville, Miss., who complained about corporal punishment of an autistic student by another teacher has no First Amendment claim, a federal district court has ruled.
The court reasoned that the teacher’s complaints about treatment of her student fell under the rubric of work-related speech, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled has no First Amendment protection in Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006).
At Anderson Elementary School in the Booneville School District, Kathy Lamb worked with eight students, including an autistic child known in court papers as C.J.
C.J. spent part of his school days in Lamb’s class and part in a regular classroom taught by Ginger Murphy. In April 2008, Lamb went to Murphy’s classroom to take C.J. to her classroom. Murphy told Lamb that she had paddled C.J. for disruptive behavior. Lamb objected to such a practice with an autistic child and said so. Murphy then went to Principal Beverly Hill’s office and complained about Lamb.
Hill called Lamb into her office and told her it was not professional to speak to Murphy as she had. Lamb told the principal that “children who are autistic don’t understand corporal punishment.” A few days later, Lamb received a letter from the school superintendent stating that her teaching contract would not be renewed.
Lamb filed a federal lawsuit in October 2008, contending that school officials retaliated against her for criticizing C.J.’s punishment. School officials countered that Lamb had no First Amendment claim because her speech was job-related within the meaning of Garcetti.
In her Feb. 3 opinion in Lamb v. Booneville School District, U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock dismissed the First Amendment claim. She said Lamb had testified in her deposition that she viewed it as part of her role as a teacher to discuss how her students were disciplined.
“Based on the record evidence, the Court finds that Plaintiff spoke as an employee in expressing her view that corporal punishment was not an effective means of discipline for an autistic child,” Aycock wrote.
Jim D. Waide III, Lamb’s attorney, said no decision had been made on whether to appeal the decision.
“The Garcetti decision is very unfortunate,” he said. “I don’t think the U.S. Supreme Court realized the damaging ramifications that its decision would have. While Garcetti itself involved somewhat trivial speech in a workplace memorandum, the decision has been expanded to cover cases involving very important, public issues and speech. For example, this case involves speech about the protection and well-being of children.”
“It is just an unfortunate fact that we have to deal with Garcetti until the Court sees fit to take another case and perhaps reexamine its holding,” Waide added.
A message requesting comment was left with attorneys for the Booneville School District.
Copyright 2010 First Amendment Center
5 Comments
Your article failed to mention how prior to that, Ms. Lamb had sent a rather snooty email to the Principal in response to his email telling her she did not follow proper procedure in moving school assets out of her room or how she verbally assaulted Ms Ginger Murphy within earshot of students causing a fellow teacher to cry inconsolably and be unable to teach. Or how after Ms Lamb got her non contract renewing notice, she went into Ms Murphy’s classroom yet again and verbally assaulted her in front of students, thrusting the notice into the teachers face stating she was the reason she was getting fired.
This is not Ms Lambs first time suing a school district, and I doubt it will be her last time. Her major downfall in this case was admitting on the stand that she had no problem with the punishment, just the fact she was not consulted beforehand. The first amendment will only take you so far, if you act like a jerk, be prepared for the consequences. Ms. Lamb clearly cannot deal with those consequences.
wait isn’t corporal punishment for students Illegal… I think that should be the number one concern not some bitchy teacher
Paddling is legal in 20 states.
The really bad thing here is the *Garcetti* decision. Without that Supreme Court decision, the school still could have won its case by proving that Lamb behaved badly or unprofessionally, or lied, or betrayed her self-serving motives. But *with* the *Garcetti* decision, the school didn’t have to. They had the right to fire her if they didn’t like what she said, no matter how diplomatic or well-motivated — or true — her speech was. That’s the real tragedy for us all. Whether it’s a child being abusively punished, toxic waste being illegally dumped, police engaging in misconduct, or whatever … the people in the best position to see it and report it can now legally be fired just for doing that, just for whistleblowing.
Mrs. Lamb did not behave badly as alleged. The district was embarrassed that they had been challenged on a hugely unethical act. What person in their right mind would paddle an autistic child?
I also know Mrs. Lamb was simply standing up for a child (as all good teachers and administrators should), who could only say “I didn’t do it.” when asked what happened. As for law suits, it was her first, last and only.
The trouble with blogs is people report third hand information believing they really have the facts when it’s just been passed with the chewing tobacco at the local high school sporting events (illegal in this state even for the superintendent).
Did you know that in Mississippi that any teacher can be fired in their first two years of working for their first school district, and that any time you change districts, you can be fired in the first year for no reason even if you have 20 years experience? Teachers have no union and no protection under Mississippi law from being exploited in any way by their administrators. Heaven forbid you seek legal settlement of an issue. You’ll never get another job anywhere in the state.
50th in the national and declining. Number 1 in the country in corporal punishment. A survey in 1997-98 showed 10% of all Mississippi students from kindergarten to 12th grade received at least one occasion of corporal punishment.
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