Court won't stop teacher from challenging religion [View All]

[rug]

Saying teachers need to be free to discuss controversial subjects, a federal appeals court has dismissed a student's lawsuit against a high school history instructor whose classroom comments poked fun at creationism and religious fundamentalism.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Friday it did not have to decide whether some of the teacher's remarks - like his calling a former teacher's anti-evolution advocacy "religious, superstitious nonsense" - violated the constitutional requirement of government neutrality by expressing hostility toward religion.

Regardless, the court said, a public employee can be sued only for violating clearly established constitutional rights. If any rights were violated in this case, they were not clearly established, the court said, because no public school teacher has ever been held liable for criticizing religion in a classroom discussion.

While teachers discussing issues like religion "must be sensitive to students' personal beliefs," the court said, "teachers must also be given leeway to challenge students to develop their critical thinking skills."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/19/BAB71KPM9O.DTL

Text of decision:

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/08/19/09-56689.pdf