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November 14, 2024
By Brian Hews • editor@cerritosnews.net
A Spanish teacher at Cerritos High suddenly stormed out of her classroom last week after seeing a student wearing a Make America Great Again tee shirt.
The Spanish teacher, identifying herself as Profe. O. then went a step further, sending students a lengthy email in which she argued that MAGA clothes are “meant to intimidate both students and teachers” and called President-elect Donald Trump a “fascist.”
She also argued that it is unfair that students can wear political clothes – but teachers cannot – saying that she is speaking to ABC Unified School District officials about the policy and is ‘in talks with my union representative and attorneys.’
Courts have previously upheld students’ right to free speech inside a school. At a public school in Des Moines, Iowa, students planned to wear black armbands at school as a silent protest against the Vietnam War; the fight went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Tinker v. Des Moines in 1969, in a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court’s majority ruled that neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The Court held that school officials could not prohibit only on the suspicion that the speech might disrupt the learning environment. This case set a significant legal precedent for free speech in schools.
The dissent argued that the First Amendment does not grant the right to express any opinion at any time. Students attend school to learn, not teach. The armbands were a distraction. School officials, acting on a legitimate interest in school order, should have broad authority to maintain a productive learning environment.
The ACLU states on its website, “But there are limitations to teacher’s free speech. Generally, the First Amendment protects your speech if you speak as a private citizen on a matter of public concern. By contrast, if you are speaking while performing job functions within the scope of your employment, the First Amendment does not protect your speech because that speech is generally considered to be speech on behalf of the school district.”
The teacher wrote, “Given the current political climate and ABCUSD policy of neutrality not being neutral in the sense that students are allowed to express their political views by wearing their preferred political party attire and teachers are not allowed to express their political opinions by wearing their preferred political party attire, I am having a disagreement with administration regarding the double standards.
“I believe that if the school districts are going to encourage neutrality as it claims to do, then no one should be allowed to wear political party attire. It is not a neutral stance when one group is allowed to express their political views even if those views are racist, misogynistic, antisemite, and homophobic, and the other side is silenced under threat of losing their job and/or being seriously reprimanded.
“As a Latina woman who is agnostic at best but leans towards atheism and a mother of an LGBTQ+ daughter and supporter of ALL my LGBTQ+ students, I do not feel safe at work, and I fear for the safety of my daughter and my students when administration allows students to wear clothing that expresses their utter disdain and hatred of women, minorities, non-Christian religions, and the LGBTQ+ community.
“Trump is a fascist put into office by people who fear the changing demographics of a country, never mind that this country was founded by people immigrating to this great country as they fled dictators and tyrants (my dad from Cuba) or impoverished countries (my grandmother from Mexico) and have come to this country to give their children a better life and opportunity at an education.”
Profe. O then encouraged her students to “keep the politics at home, not in the classroom.”
In a statement to LCCN, ABCUSD officials wrote, “At the ABC Unified School District, we encourage students to exercise their freedom of speech within the policies set by our Board of Education and California Education Code. We are aware of the situation at Cerritos High School with a teacher and are actively working on an investigation of this personnel matter. As always, we encourage our amazing educators to use real-life issues, like the recent elections, to have meaningful and age-appropriate classroom discussions with students.”
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