Dear GAE Member,
Recent events, locally and nationally, have once again highlighted the increasing divide amongst our communities, resulting in both professional and personal stress and emotional reactions from many. I want to remind members to choose words with caution and thoughtful deliberation both on- and off-duty. There is an effort underway to target individual educators based on their speech. This targeting has included calls for discipline or termination, and even violent threats to educators and their school campuses. To date, we are not aware of any GAE members being directly impacted.
We are aware of several non-member educators who face disciplinary action for comments made off-duty, on personal social media pages. The Georgia Association of Educators supports your First Amendment right to free speech, but you should be aware that there are limits to First Amendment protections. There is precedent, in Georgia, that disciplinary action will be upheld by the courts if the school system can show speech caused a disruption to the school environment (Atwater v. Tucker, 343 Ga.App. 301, 807 S.E.2d 56 (2017). In this case, the off-duty speech was not protected by the First Amendment. Therefore, we want all our members to be cautious and diligent with any social media posts and verify if their district has a policy concerning social media use. School board policies are usually found on the school district website.
We all want to keep our focus on educating our students, inspiring them with a love of learning, and providing them with the best education possible. We should strive to model for them the respectful discourse we expect in the classrooms and demonstrate that we can disagree in an appropriate manner. No matter an individual’s beliefs or statements, we can all agree that everyone should be safe from violence and threats of violence. Threats of violence against individual educators, their students, or their schools should have no place in our society.
Sadly, at this time, many of our social media feeds are crowded with inappropriate content, vicious discourse and even reports of threats against those who express differing beliefs or opinions. If you are experiencing this, consider taking a break from social media for the week to protect your peace. If you need resources for your emotional or mental health, NEA Member Benefits has resources available to you. (Go to neamb.com and choose the Family and Wellness tab. You will be asked to sign in as a member.)
If you have questions or concerns, please contact your UniServ Director as soon as possible to explore ways to best protect your rights and your career. If you need legal assistance regarding a specific matter, we are here for you. Please refer to the links below for UniServ contact information.
As always, thank you for all you do for our students and thank you for being a member of GAE.
Sincerely,
Lisa
Lisa Morgan
Member and President
