IN: Ex-instructor claims Frankton school officials violated free speech rights
   
FRANKTON — A former Frankton Elementary School Title I reading instructor filed a federal lawsuit Friday claiming the school violated her right to free speech by firing her for criticizing a curriculum in a Feb. 10 Facebook post.

In the complaint, filed Friday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Jennifer McWilliams claims she spoke as a private citizen in her public criticisms of “The Leader in Me” curriculum, and that by firing her, the school had violated her First Amendment rights.

“The U.S. Constitution protects all of us, including public school teachers, from the government’s unlawful infringement on our free speech rights,” said James Bopp Jr., of Terre Haute-based The Bopp Law Firm, which represents McWilliams, said in a prepared statement released Tuesday. “As a citizen and as a parent, she had every right to criticize the curriculum in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper on her own time — here, she had every right to post the modern-day version of a ‘letter to the editor’ — a Facebook post — doing the same.”

However, Frankton-Lapel Superintendent Bobby Fields said he has no problems with staff expressing their concerns in public. He said McWilliams, who was an at-will employee and not a licensed teacher represented by the union, has made public comments about the district on social media and in Elwood’s Call-Leader newspaper without being fired or disciplined.

He said she was terminated Feb. 14 for circulating untruths about the school, the district and the program.

“As an at-will employee, we are not going to accept someone who is unhappy about people and lying,” he said. “You can say what you want, and we’re not going to fire you for that. But if you don’t tell the truth about us, you should be fired. We don’t need that kind of employees around.”

McWilliams did not return requests for comment.

However, McWilliams asserted in her complaint that she always participated in the required lessons and activities associated with The Leader in Me curriculum and never has had a negative job performance evaluation.

SOURCE