Blogging Teacher Had a Free-Speech Right to Criticize Lazy Kids, Her Lawyer Says
A lawyer for a Pennsylvania teacher suspended for her blog comments about rude and lazy students says free speech rights are at stake.
Steven Rovner represents Natalie Munroe, 30, who used profanity and complained about unmotivated students on her blog, the Associated Press reports. The high school teacher in suburban Philadelphia didn’t use her full name, nor did she identify any of the students.
Among the blog comments was this one: “My students are out of control. … They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying.”
In another post, Munroe talked about the student evaluations she wished she could write. They include: “I hear the trash company is hiring” and, “I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son.”
Rovner told AP that he sees a free speech issue, and he will consider legal action if Munroe is fired. The blog is “so general that it applies to the problems in school districts and schools across the country,” he said.
