Sensible or Stifled: What Public-school Teachers Know about Their First Amendment Speech Protections in the Classroom

ABSTRACT An increasing number of school districts encourage discussion of current events in classrooms. However, teachers’ ability and willingness to manage these conversations may be hampered by concerns about what they are or are not allowed to disclose, especially because their First Amendment speech protections do not fully extend into the classroom. We conducted a survey of public-school teachers to identify what they know about their rights, and how that relates to their teaching practice. Results suggest that although most teachers regularly discuss current events in the classroom, teacher legal literacy is relatively low. Teachers are generally uninformed about both caselaw relating to free speech for public employees, and district policies relating to classroom discussion. Despite this gap in legal literacy, teachers are most likely to turn to their peers for information, which leaves room for teachers to unknowingly cross the line between protected and unprotected speech in the classroom, and potentially face significant consequences as a result.