Opinion ID: 568042
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Legitimate Pedagogical Interests

Text: 16 In Hazelwood, the Court found that the school's decision to excise two pages from the newspaper reasonably protected pedagogical interests. The Court noted that these pedagogical interests included preventing speech that was not sufficiently sensitive to students' privacy interests or that was inappropriate for the maturity level of the adolescent audience. 484 U.S. at 274, 108 S.Ct. at 571. The school here proffers several interests to justify its sanction of Miles' remark. First, the school states an interest in preventing Miles from using his position of authority to confirm an unsubstantiated rumor. The Supreme Court already has recognized a school's interest in disassociating itself from speech the school reasonably considers inappropriate to bear its imprimatur. Id. at 260, 108 S.Ct. at 564. 17 Second, the school asserts an interest in ensuring that teacher employees exhibit professionalism and sound judgment. In Koch v. City of Hutchinson, 847 F.2d 1436, 1450 (10th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 909, 109 S.Ct. 262, 102 L.Ed.2d 250 (1988), we recognized a public employer's interest in ensuring its employee's ability and competence to perform his or her job. Clearly, professionalism and sound judgment contribute to the competent performance of a teacher's job. Indeed, as Miles himself reminds us, 18 The process of educating our youth for citizenship in public schools is not confined to books, the curriculum, and the civics class; schools must teach by example the shared values of a civilized social order. Consciously or otherwise, teachers ... demonstrate the appropriate form of civil discourse and political expression by their conduct and deportment in and out of class. 19 Third, the school states an interest in providing an educational atmosphere where teachers do not make statements about students that embarrass those students among their peers. This interest is related to two concerns the Court approved in Hazelwood. There, the Court held a school could regulate school-sponsored speech to protect the privacy interests of unnamed but potentially identifiable parties mentioned in the article. 484 U.S. at 274-75, 108 S.Ct. at 571-72. The Court also permitted school officials to prevent the publication of allegations against named parties without giving them a fair chance to refute the allegations. Id. at 275, 108 S.Ct. at 572. 20 The interests asserted by the school in this case clearly are legitimate pedagogical interests. Thus, the only remaining question under Hazelwood is whether the actions taken by the school are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical interests. 21