The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that teachers are free to express their political opinions through buttons and posters at school. But just because they can doesn’t mean they should — freedom of expression should be tempered with common sense.
Teachers wield considerable influence over the developing attitudes of students. They should ensure they wield that influence carefully, giving students something to think about rather than telling them what to think.
The appeal court’s ruling this week arose from a 2009 incident in Cranbrook in which two teachers posted materials on school walls supporting the B.C. Teachers’ Federation campaign called When Will They Learn. It targeted the provincial government over the closing of schools and overcrowding in classrooms.
The local school district said the material could be displayed only on staff bulletin boards, so principals ordered the materials removed. After a grievance was filed, an arbitrator sided with the district, but the appeals court justices disagreed, saying there was no potential harm to students from being exposed to materials about education issues.
The court’s decision came with a caution. While agreeing with the 3-0 ruling, Justice Christopher Hinkson expressed concerns about children being exposed to just one side of the issue, noting that the teachers’ right of freedom of expression should not deprive students of their right to an unbiased education.
The ruling doesn’t throw schools open to political campaigns — Justice Risa Levine said that if the Cranbrook incident had been a case of a school serving as a political battleground, the ruling would have been different.
It’s not difficult to sympathize with teachers’ frustrations over a lack of resources, schools being closed and classroom sizes growing, and now the court says they shouldn’t be forbidden from expressing those frustrations. However, it shouldn’t be seen as opening the door to blatant politicking by teachers in their classrooms, nor are committed teachers likely to see it that way.
Members of Premier Christy Clark’s staff lost their jobs because they were doing partisan political work on the public’s nickel. Teachers are public employees; they should adhere to the same standards required of other civil servants.
But that doesn’t mean they should be muzzled. Far from it — elections, campaigns and political issues should be fodder for classroom discussions, golden opportunities for learning about the real world in real time.
Columnist and former school superintendent Geoff Johnson advocated this week that civics be brought back into the public-education system as a mandatory subject. Get them engaged and informed when they are young, he reasons, and maybe B.C. won’t have such dismal voter turnouts.
Of course, teachers should not be allowed to proselytize their own views in the classroom, but they should be free to encourage debate on the issues. They should not be afraid to display passion for a cause, but professionalism dictates that they present a diversity of perspectives.
At a time when the education system is strapped for cash, it’s shameful that resources were spent on arguing and appealing a case that could have been settled with a collegial discussion. Courts, unions and arbitrators deal in law and rules, not necessarily common sense. Issues tend to get taken to extremes; workable solutions often lie in the middle.
