LETTER: Clark County School District tramples teacher rights
Once again, the Clark County School Board proves that a glass half full is worse than an empty glass. The district has taken the audacious step of sanctioning educators for exercising their out-of-school, personal First Amendment free speech protections. The teachers’ gross malfeasance? Violating a guideline, the specifics of which are hidden from those very district employees. That’s akin to getting a speeding ticket on a highway that has no speed limit signs.
Despite assurances from district officials about transparency, the public has no idea of the content of the posts. We don’t know what “substantial disruption” the posts caused and, hiding behind the thin veil of privacy, Superintendent Jhone Ebert refuses to divulge the number educators sanctioned. Just whose privacy would be violated by disclosing the factual number of educators she’s chosen to discipline?
This action makes it clear this school board and superintendent are applying grease to the squeakiest “wheel” in the realm, all without regard to the inappropriateness of that noise. But those loudest voices are entitled to their voice and space. Unfortunately, like Congress and the Supreme Court, the district is responding to the loudest voices — these days, the minority radical and often ultra-conservative Christian right, which is, sadly, a detriment to most Americans.