Constitution prevails over crackdown on teacher's opinion

World Net Daily ^ | 8/25/2011 | WorldNetDaily

[Elvina]

A Florida teacher who was suspended for statements that disapproved of legalized homosexual marriage in New York has been reinstated, attorneys representing the veteran educator have announced.

"This is a great day for the Constitution," said Harry Mihet, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel, which worked on the case involving Jerry Buell.

"By fully exonerating Mr. Buell, the Lake County (Fla.) School Board has reaffirmed what the rest of Americans already knew. The First Amendment protects the right of public servants to express their personal opinion without any fear or intimidation. It is a shame that Mr. Buell had to miss three days of teaching for his employer to learn this lesson."

Buell had been suspended a week ago and reassigned to administrative duties during the school's "investigation" into the situation. That happened after a complaint was submitted to the board about comments Buell made on his Facebook page that disapproved of New York's move to legalize homosexual "marriage."

Read more: Constitution prevails over crackdown on teacher's opinion http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=337445#ixzz1W2uRMJFV

[Elvina]

Glad to see this teacher is not going to be further persecuted, although if I were him I would start looking for a job with more reasonable employers.

[ilovesarah2012]

Great victory. I’ve been following the story and it’s nice to see a win for a good and brave man.

[GeronL]

They have not yet outlawed dissent??

They will keep trying

[rbg81]

Good for him! Now let’s see him sue their facist a$$es.

[Elvina]

Yes, it is surprising how quickly the victory came. I would like to think the tide is turning in favor of liberty, but who knows what all the factors were here. I fear we still have a long way to go.

[sickoflibs]

RE “By fully exonerating Mr. Buell, the Lake County (Fla.) School Board has reaffirmed what the rest of Americans already knew. The First Amendment protects the right of public servants to express their personal opinion without any fear or intimidation. It is a shame that Mr. Buell had to miss three days of teaching for his employer to learn this lesson.” Buell had been suspended a week ago and reassigned to administrative duties during the school's “investigation” into the situation. That happened after a complaint was submitted to the board about comments Buell made on his Facebook page that disapproved of New York's move to legalize homosexual “marriage.”

Looking at this from a different perspective this shows how public servants have more rights than the taxpayers that pay their salary.

While the courts rule that public employers cannot fire their puiblic employees for voicing their opinions outside of work, there is no equivelent protection for ‘private’ employees voicing their opinions.

Here is a very clear example :

A public school-teacher saying on camera (say youtube) that Bush is Hitler is protected from being fired and cannot be fired for that.

A private school-teacher saying on camera (say youtube) that Obama is Hitler is NOT protected from being fired and can be fired if the employer doesnt like it. In fact Beck being run off of FNC could be an example of this, obviously not proved.

Just a thought. I always think of the less obvious. The roles could be reversed above, the liberal is fired and conservative protected.

[Elvina]

Yes, this is a good point. Also, the tenured teacher has more rights than the government school non-tenured teacher. If Mr. Buell were non-tenured, they could just get rid of him without giving a reason—just not renew his contract.