Two Lee County teachers are claiming their First Amendment rights were violated for social media posts they made following the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
They’ve filed separate suits in federal court.
Superintendent Denise Carlin suspended teacher Brooke Wold last month and recommended her firing. Carlin suspended teacher Morgan Wright for 10 days and then reassigned him to a different school.
The president of Florida’s largest teachers union, Andrew Spar, expressed his concern over several aspects of the disciplinary action.
For one, he is concerned about the interpretation of a memo dated Sept. 11 from the Florida Education Commissioner, who cited Florida law in stating that an employee can be disciplined if their personal conduct, upon investigation, reduces their professional effectiveness.
"What concerns me about the commissioner's memo is it seemed like it was a direct threat to educators in the state of Florida, and really a word of caution from the commissioner in a way that really is meant to silence educators."
The phrase “upon investigation” also is a sticking point with Spar.
"In this case, there is a process in Florida, if an educator does something outside of work which impacts their ability to do their jobs effectively at work. And so what we want to make sure is that there's a fair process, and that fair process means that there are investigators in the state who investigate an accusation, they then bring a recommendation to an independent commission, the Florida Professional Practices Commission, which ultimately looks at the whole scenario and makes a determination. And we trust that process, and we want that process to be followed."
Teachers’ personal versus professional lives is a distinction that should be made, Spar believes.
"We know as educators that we are held to a higher standard, and we should be. We don't shy away from that. They know when they come to school as professionals, they are in a professional setting. They have those expectations that they live by when they're in their personal lives and they're speaking to people in a in a circle of friends, that's a little bit different, and to say that they can't have a personal life is certainly a concern of ours," he said.
Spar is aware of some social media comments made and believes they stopped short of a key actionable component, which would be condoning violence.
"I've seen a lot of the posts that the commissioner has complained about or that others have complained about, you know, the question becomes, are they really condoning violence? And I think in a lot of those cases, we would find out they're not," Spar said.
Through its spokesman, the school system said that because of the lawsuits, it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.
