N.Y. Court of Appeals: Teachers endangered student safety

Wenwood Drive, outside Woodland Middle School, pictured above in March, was the site of the 2007 picketing incident.

Christina Daly/Herald file photo

The New York State Court of Appeals ruled last week that two East Meadow teachers endangered student safety when they picketed from their parked cars before school on a street outside Woodland Middle School on a rainy day in March 2007, protesting stalled contract negotiations.

The two teachers, Richard Santer and Barbara Lucia, were ordered to pay fines of $500 and $1,000, respectively.

The court overturned two 2012 appellate court decisions in favor of the teachers, saying the protest was within their First Amendment rights.

The appellate rulings had overturned a Nassau County Supreme Court ruling that had sided with the East Meadow district.

In its 2012 rulings, the appellate court applied a two-part precedent, established in a 1968 suit in Illinois, in siding with the teachers, citing a “balancing test” for teachers who protest collective bargaining issues. The court ruled that their free speech was a matter of public concern, and that the school district failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that the teachers’ actions “so threatened the school’s effective operation as to justify the imposition of discipline.”

The Court of Appeals agreed with the Appellate Division that the picketing demonstration was a form of speech protected by the First Amendment, addressing a matter of public concern. But it concluded that the teachers’ exercise of their constitutionally protected speech was “outweighed by the district’s interests in safeguarding students and maintaining effective operations at Woodland.” The ruling, which was written by Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, further stated that the teachers created a “potential yet substantial risk to student safety and an actual disruption to school operations.”

Court of Appeals decisions require a majority vote. Five judges sided with the district, and two with the teachers. The majority opinion was written by Abdus-Salaam.