{"id":65284,"date":"2021-02-27T03:22:27","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T09:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=65284"},"modified":"2021-02-27T03:22:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T09:22:27","slug":"65284","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=65284","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

School principal suspended after teaching students about Big Tech censorship<\/a><\/p>\n

A school principal in Tennessee is suing his school district and its superintendent for suspending him after he taught kids about Big Tech censorship. The lawsuit claims his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated.<\/p>\n

We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following the events of January 6, the Shelby County Schools superintendent Joris Ray told principals to discuss the Capitol riot as a \u201cteachable moment.\u201d Cordova High School\u2019s Principal Barton Thorne did exactly what the superintendent said.<\/p>\n

In a virtual classroom, Thorne talked to students about the threat of Big Tech censorship in the aftermath of the riot. The riot at the US Capitol was used as a justification for Facebook, Twitter and more to censor President Trump and other conservatives.<\/p>\n

Thorne accused these platforms of deciding who gets to speak and what message or ideology to amplify.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you what to think, I just want to help you think,\u201d Principal Thorne told his students in a online class a few days after the Capitol Hill riot.<\/p>\n

Read the full transcript of Thorne\u2019s message to students\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

His remarks got him swiftly put on administrative leave by the Shelby County Schools (SCS) pending a \u201cprofessional misconduct\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n

On January 25, his lawyers, from the Liberty Justice Center, sent the SCS a\u00a0warning letter<\/a>\u00a0demanding the immediate reinstatement of Thorne and to \u201cpublicly apologize for suggesting his actions were inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the warning letter, Thorne\u2019s lawyers argued that he merely followed Ray\u2019s instructions. The superintendent\u2019s email to educators suggested several educational materials, including a National Constitution Center lesson plan suggesting students should discuss \u201cthe importance of free speech on social media,\u201d\u00a0College Fix found.<\/a><\/p>\n

After the school district\u2019s inaction, on February 25, Thorne filed a federal lawsuit at the Western District of Tennessee District Court against the Shelby County Board of Education and Superintendent Joris Ray. Two days earlier, his lawyers gave the school district two days to \u201center into confidential settlement discussions.\u201d The SCS did not oblige, and the lawyers released a press release announcing the lawsuit, with the warning letter, transcript of Thorne\u2019s video attached.<\/p>\n

In the press release, Thorne is described as \u201ca career educator in a very diverse community\u201d who is flabbergasted with his suspension \u201cfor speaking with students about the First Amendment.\u201d The press release continues to state that Thorne will not remain silent \u201cany more than I would allow a student to be marginalized for sharing a perfectly reasonable point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018cancel culture\u2019 taking foot in America has now reached our schools, and I will not stand for it,\u201d Thorne added.<\/p>\n

In the video, Thorne acknowledges the unconstitutional nature of the Capitol riot, even calling what happened \u201csedition.\u201d However, he raised concerns about Big tTech platforms for \u201ctheir decision as private companies to filter and decide what you can hear and know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the employee handbook, his lawyers argue that nothing Thorne told his students was \u201cirresponsible or untruthful \u2026 obscene, profane, or discourteous \u2026 harassing, discriminatory, or intimidating towards students or staff in his building \u2026 dangerous or disruptive.\u201d He also did not violate any ethics code for teachers or anything that \u201cconstituted incompetence or improper conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, his swift placement on administrative leave was a violation of the school districts procedures. The conditions for swift removal are \u201csexual harassment, disorderly conduct, or the situations where the employee presents a potential threat to other employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also points out that other educators in the school district had no action taken against them for discussing \u201ctimely and controversial issues.\u201d Some employees have tweeted against Trump. Shortly after Trump lost the 2020 election, the district\u2019s communication strategist Jerica Phillips tweeted:<\/p>\n

\u201cAuthoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s innovation chief, Amity Schuyler, uploaded a photo of the Capitol riot showing a Confederate flag and said it summed up the four years of the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, such tweets \u201care typical of the messages shared by SCS administrators and educators in their classrooms and other communications to students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe different treatment of his speech from these examples and other instances shows the viewpoint discrimination specific to his speech,\u201d the lawsuit adds.<\/p>\n

The suit claims that Thorne has \u201clanguished for six weeks\u201d on administrative leave without knowing what will happen to his career. He wants the defendants found guilty of violating his contractual and constitutional rights, and compensate him for punitive and nominal damages, as well as legal fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School principal suspended after teaching students about Big Tech censorship A school principal in Tennessee is suing his school district and its superintendent for suspending him after he taught kids about Big Tech censorship. The lawsuit claims his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated. We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you\u00a0here. Following … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65285,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65284\/revisions\/65285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}