Michael F. Haverluck (OneNewsNow.com) Saturday, February 28, 2015
When 12-year junior high school teacher Deborah Vailes posted a criticism she had about the Common Core on her personal Facebook page, school officials immediately retaliated by ordering her to retract her post and threatening disciplinary measures, which could include termination.
Contending that Rapides Parish School District and Pineville Junior High School Principal Dr. Dana Nolan violated Vailes’ free speech rights protected by the United States Constitution, Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) filed a lawsuit with the Federal District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against the school officials Wednesday on the teacher’s behalf.
“Debora Vailes re-posted on her personal Facebook page a photograph of a little girl crying because of the shortcomings of Common Core,” TMLC reported. “Later that day, her school principal, Dr. Dana Nolan, after discovering the post, gave Deborah Vailes her first written reprimand and ordered her to refrain from expressing any opinion about public education on social media and to remove her anti-Common Core post from the social media site — ASAP. (The school district refers to written reprimands as a ‘documented conference.’)”
Jindal appalled
Embarrassed that state officials over education took to a Gestapo-like approach to silence any opposition to the federally created Common Core, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal took immediate action to ensure that such authoritarian control isn’t enforced against concerned teachers in the future.
“After hearing about the Principal's gag order, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, issued an executive order that teachers were to be afforded the same constitutional guarantees afforded to all citizens,” TMLC reports. “However, his executive order did not deter the Defendant, Dr. Nolan, from continuing her vendetta against Deborah Vailes.”
