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 14th 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 1965- 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 14th amendment (privacy and due process rights)