Author: Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC
“Teachers Rights Attorneys”
A Montreal teacher was fired from his position after showing his students a video containing the killing, dismemberment, and cannibalism of a gay porn actor. The actor/student Jun Lin was supposedly killed in May of this year in a horrific manner. On June 4, 2012, German law enforcement arrested the suspected killer Magnotta. The killer had posted the video online, which is how it came to be presented in a Montreal school. The history teacher regularly talked about current events and played the video in class upon the requests of the students. The vice principal overheard students talking about the video at which time the teacher was immediately suspended and later fired from his job. Full article.
New York, teachers are evaluated by state education officials and the teachers’ unions compromised on the framework of a system to evaluate teachers based on their classroom performance, their success at raising students’ test scores, and other measures. Barring an employment agreement or contract stating otherwise, New York is an “at-will” employment state. This means that an employer can fire an employee for almost any reason. Most non-tenured teachers are at-will employees. As such, they are not granted special protections against termination. If you signed a contract with the district, you may have additional rights, but these agreements generally will not change your at-will status. You may also have additional rights as provided by the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by your union and the district. An attorney experienced in employment law can review employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements to see what protections, if any, the contracts provide.
The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C., represent students, teachers, professors, adjunct faculty, administrators, board members and others who work in the primary or secondary levels of education, and who have been mistreated in some way by their employers. Generally, our education and tenure law practice is devoted to clients on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York City area. Please contact Leeds, Morelli & Brown, PC for a free consultation.