Opinion ID: 1136929
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitutional Protection for the Respondent's Conduct

Text: As noted in Part I of this opinion, supra, during their deliberations with respect to the respondent's teaching contract, the members of the board of education considered reports of incidents which had occurred between the respondent and two of his fellow teachers. The evidence presented at trial as to the nature of those incidents was in conflict. However, the question of what had actually transpired between the respondent and his fellow teachers was clearly one of fact, and our examination of the record convinces us that the evidence was sufficient to justify the submission of the question to the jury. Therefore, on the petitioners' motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the trial court was required to view the evidence concerning this factual issue in the light most favorable to the respondent, making every reasonable inference which could legitimately be drawn from the evidence in his favor. Hollinger v. Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, 192 Colo. 377, 560 P.2d 824 (1977); Alexander v. First National Bank in Fort Collins, 169 Colo. 252, 455 P.2d 861 (1969); Roberts v. Bucher, 41 Colo.App. 138, 584 P.2d 97 (1978), rev'd. on other grounds, 198 Colo. 1, 595 P.2d 239 (1979). When evaluated pursuant to this standard, the evidence supports the following version of the incidents which occurred between the respondent and his colleagues Dianne Edison and Laddie John. The Dianne Edison incident. In October 1975, during a lunch break, the respondent engaged in a discussion with several DEA members, including Dianne Edison, concerning a plan to publicly distribute leaflets containing information about ongoing salary negotiations between the DEA and the board of education. The respondent assumed that everyone present approved of the plan. Dianne Edison, however, indicated that she did not approve, and she and the respondent engaged in a brief discussion about her unwillingness to participate in the leafletting program. Later in the day, after school hours, the discussion was resumed, and the respondent vigorously urged Edison to reverse her position, stating that it would not be in her best interests to be singled out by the board of education as being different. Edison was upset by the discussion and ended up . . in tears. The Laddie John incident. Laddie John had not paid his DEA dues, and, during a lunch period, the respondent initiated a discussion with him on the subject. The respondent asserted that John had a contractual obligation to pay the dues, and John stated that he had previously dropped his DEA membership. John asked whether his refusal to pay DEA dues would affect his application for sabbatical leave, scheduled to be decided by a committee composed primarily of DEA members. In response, the respondent stated that it was best if we all got along under the trying circumstances we were under. The respondent himself had no authority with respect to the sabbatical proposal and did not intend his statement as a threat that the proposal would not be approved if John did not pay his dues. Nonetheless, John perceived the respondent's remark as an implied threat to that effect. In granting the petitioners' motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the trial court implicitly concluded that the respondent's above-described speech activities did not come within the free speech protections of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The sufficiency of the evidence to support a jury finding as to whether the respondent's speech activities were entitled to constitutional protection was an issue of law, appropriate for determination on a reserved basis by the trial court under C.R.C.P. 50(b). See Wheeler & Lewis v. Slifer, 195 Colo. 291, 577 P.2d 1092 (1978). Accord, Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 578-579 n. 2, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 1739-1740, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968); Franklin v. Atkins, 409 F.Supp. 439 (D.Colo.1976), aff'd., 562 F.2d 1188 (10th Cir. 1977). In our view, however, the issue was wrongly decided by the trial court. Constitutional protection vel non for the respondent's speech activities depends on the balance between: the interests of the teacher, as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees. Pickering v. Board of Education, supra, 391 U.S. at 568, 88 S.Ct. at 1734-1735, 20 L.Ed.2d at 817. The balance will be struck in favor of the latter interest when it is demonstrated that the teacher's speech activities constitute a material or substantial interference with the teaching program, appropriate discipline, or the rights of others. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969); Franklin v. Atkins, supra . In the instant case, there was a complete failure of proof in this regard. The petitioners' theory at trial was that the respondent's speech activities had so upset Dianne Edison and Laddie John that their respective abilities to teach in the classroom were diminished. However, neither Edison nor John, nor any other witness, testified to this effect. No showing was made that the respondent's speech had engendered the sort of disharmony among coworkers which would remove it from constitutional protection under Pickering v. Board of Education, supra . Cf. Los Angeles Teachers Union v. Los Angeles City Board of Education, 71 Cal.2d 551, 455 P.2d 827, 78 Cal.Rptr. 723 (1969) (under Pickering v. Board of Education , the government has no interest in preventing the sort of disharmony which inevitably results from the mere expression of controversial ideas) with Lefcourt v. Legal Aid Society, 312 F.Supp. 1105 (S.D.N.Y.1970), aff'd., 445 F.2d 1150 (2d Cir. 1971) (employee's speech activities held to have had a definite [negative] impact on the internal operation of the public service office in which he was employed). We therefore hold that the trial court erred in concluding that the respondent's speech activities in connection with the Dianne Edison and Laddie John incidents did not come within the protection of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.