NSBA Files Amicus Brief Urging Federal Appellate Court to Uphold School Board Authority
Alexandria, Va. – September 18 -- The National School Boards Association (NSBA) has urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to uphold a lower court ruling that backs local school boards’ authority to ensure teachers adhere to the curriculum in the classroom as established by the school district, rather than voicing personal opinions on controversial topics.
NSBA, along with a number of other education groups including the American Association of School Administrators, filed an amicus brief in Mayer v. Monroe County Community School Corporation urging the court to uphold a school district’s right to require teachers to teach the adopted curriculum rather than imposing personal views on a captive audience of students in the classroom.
"It is very important that local school boards continue to have the authority to ensure that teachers follow the district's curriculum and not introduce their own beliefs on controversial subjects," said Anne L. Bryant, NSBA executive director.
The case involves a probationary teacher, Deborah Mayer, who discussed her opposition to the war in Iraq during a classroom session on news articles about protests of U.S. military involvement in Iraq. After complaints by parents, the principal issued a memo instructing teachers not to discuss personal opinions about foreign policy in class. When Mayer’s contract was not renewed amid other parental complaints about her effectiveness as a teacher, she sued the district, alleging her First Amendment right to free speech was violated. Last May, in Garcetti v. Ceballos , the Supreme Court ruled against a public employee raising similar arguments as those made by the teacher in Mayer.
"Making sure that teachers follow the established curriculum is critical in the current environment of standards and accountability," said Francisco M. Negrón, Jr., NSBA general counsel. "Permitting an individual to diverge from an adopted curriculum to inculcate pupils in personal views is unfair to students and parents, who rely on a school district to educate all children on the basis of an accepted, legitimate course of study."
NSBA's brief notes that school boards implement uniform curricula after careful consideration of instructional goals, state academic standards, federal mandates and community input.
The National School Boards Association, a federation of state school boards associations representing more than 95,000 local school board members, closely monitors the courts and regularly files friend-of-the-court briefs in cases that affect the nation’s 50 million public school students.
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