Carroll ISD has added a new clause to its annual employment contracts prohibiting employees from publicly criticizing the district to the media.
“You agree to not disparage, criticize, or defame the District, and its employees or officials, to the media,” read the new clause listed under the heading “Non-Disparagement.”
The addition of the new clause comes seven months after teachers publicly expressed concerns about the advice given by a top administrator while training teachers on a new Texas law, House Bill 3979.
In October 2021, Gina Peddy, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, held a training session where she advised teachers about how best to comply with the law. Among other things, HB 3979 calls for the presentation of multiple perspectives when discussing controversial or widely debated issues.
As an example, Peddy said teachers should balance a book on the Holocaust with a book from an opposing perspective. The comment met with backlash from teachers and groups such as the Texas State Teachers Association, a union that represents Texas educators.
The district’s superintendent, Lane Ledbetter, later responded to the controversy by apologizing and explaining that the Holocaust was not an example of an issue with two sides that required an opposing viewpoint.
A labor law expert at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign said that Carroll ISD’s new non-disparagement clause could be unconstitutional. According to Leroy, the clause seems to be a violation of a U.S. Supreme Court precedent that established the right of government employees to express their opinions regarding matters of public importance, even if the subject of criticism is their employer.
Officials for the National Education Association and the Texas State Teachers Association said the contract language used in the clause attempts to silence teachers.
“It is a rejection of a teacher’s fundamental First Amendment rights,” said Clay Robison, a Texas State Teachers Association spokesman.
“A teacher also is a taxpayer, who is entitled to criticize a public school district,” argued Robison, who said this is the first known case of such language in a teacher contract.
The district has so far made no public statement regarding the new policy. Spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald declined to respond to requests for comment.
Texas GOP Declares: “No More Teaching of ‘Critical Thinking Skills’ in Texas Public Schools” …
LINK: https://truthout.org/articles/texas-gop-declares-no-more-teaching-of-critical-thinking-skills-in-texas-public-schools/
… and this was in 2012 …
… Republicans cannot exist in the cold light of critical thinking …
… it goes on … they scurry back under the stove …