Teacher Honks for Peace, Gets Fired

Deborah Mayer, a former elementary teacher from a small conservative town in Indiana, was fired for saying, " I honk for peace."

Mayer said her troubles started on 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 student 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. Mayer is now righting her way through the court system to protect her rights of free speech.

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.

In what could be a landmark case, courts will have to decide whether the First Amendment of Free Speech is extended to teachers in a classroom setting. The curriculum of the week in question, was a current-events discussion, so did Mayer have the right to give her benign opinion or not?

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.