Fired teacher honking for justice

Now in Osceola, she is appealing her dismissal in Indiana to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Deborah Mayer, 57, a former Indiania elementary-school teacher, says she lost her job after saying 'I honk for peace' in class.

Kissimmee Middle School reading teacher Deborah Mayer said her world has been "devastated" by four words she uttered in an Indiana classroom four years ago: "I honk for peace."

Mayer, who now lives in Celebration, was fired from her teaching job in Bloomington, Ind., after that 2003 comment. Now she's appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, asserting that her dismissal for expressing her political views violated her First Amendment rights.

It's a case with national implications for what teachers can -- and can't -- say in a public-school classroom.

"This has been devastating to me," Mayer, 57, said of her case, which has cost her $70,000 in legal fees. "What's important is that when I decided to stand up for my rights and take this school system to court, the court said teachers have no right of free speech."

But Thomas Wheeler, attorney for the Monroe County Community School Corp., said her real problem is she was a bad teacher. Besides, he said, teachers don't have First Amendment rights in the classroom because they teach a curriculum decided by state and local officials. So far, lower courts have agreed -- and the Supreme Court has not decided whether to hear her appeal.

Martin Sweet, an assistant professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, said Mayer's case has a decent chance of getting a hearing.

"The First Amendment does not go away for either teachers or students. But it has to be measured," he said. One measure is subject matter, he said: A teacher discussing current events could more appropriately voice political opinions than, for instance, a biology teacher.

Mayer said her troubles started Jan. 10, 2003 -- the eve of the Iraq war -- during a weekly current-events discussion in her Grades 4-6 class at Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Ind. A pupil asked if she would participate in a peace rally.

"I honk for peace," Mayer, a veteran teacher in her first year at Bloomington, said she told them. She said she also told the students, "People ought to seek out peaceful solutions before going to war."

She said several parents subsequently complained about her comments, leading to the non-renewal of her contract at the end of the year.

"I said four little words, and it destroyed my life," said Mayer, whose grown son subsequently served in Afghanistan.

But Wheeler said the peace comments "had absolutely nothing to do with her termination. What happened was, she was a bad teacher."

He said parents began complaining in October 2002, and some requested that their children be transferred to another class.

Strict disciplinarian

Hope Ellington, whose daughter was in Mayer's class, said Mayer was a strict disciplinarian, which some pupils and parents didn't like. She called Mayer a "really great" teacher with good rapport with pupils.

Ellington, who describes her family as conservative Republicans, said her daughter was upset that Mayer was "bashing" President Bush in class. But she said Mayer's teaching ability was more important that her political views. She thinks the combination of those views and her strict discipline cost Mayer her job.

Needing work, Mayer moved to Boca Grande on Florida's southwest coast, where she taught at a charter school, and then to Boone Middle School in Haines City last year.

Boone's then-principal, Pam Henderson, said Mayer's very structured classroom was welcomed by some families but not others.

"She was a great teacher," Henderson said. "She cared about the students."

Mayer switched this year to Kissimmee, where she teaches sixth-grade reading. She recently won the Defense of Academic Freedom Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, but she's disappointed that other teachers groups haven't spoken up on her behalf.

May teachers respond?

Mayer said she's not advocating that teachers can say anything they want -- but insists they can respond to students' comments and questions.

"Teachers need to know if their in-class speech is ever entitled to First Amendment protection, and if so when," her appeal to the Supreme Court says.

Wheeler, the School Board attorney, said it's clear public-school teachers have no free-speech rights. "We need to keep control of the classroom that's taught in our name," he said. "If they disagree with the curriculum, they can go somewhere else."

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. "The First Amendment does not entitle primary and secondary teachers, when conducting the education of captive audiences, to cover topics, or advocate viewpoints, that depart from the curriculum adopted by the school system," it ruled.

But Ellington, whose daughter was in that Bloomington classroom, said she thinks children can and should hear differing viewpoints.

"Freedom of speech is perfectly fine for a teacher," Ellington said. "I don't think she was trying to make card-carrying Democrats out of her fourth-, fifth- and sixth--graders."