A federal judge has closed the door on a former Palatine High School teacher's lawsuit against her former employer, in which she claimed a northwest suburban school district violated her constitutional rights when she was fired in large part over Facebook posts critical of riots and looting that erupted in Chicago amid protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020.
On Feb. 20, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah granted summary judgment to Township High School District 211 and school board members and school administrators in the legal action brought by plaintiff Jeanne Hedgepeth.
In the decision, Shah said district officials did not improperly bow to the demands of students, activists and others when they terminated Hedgepeth from the teaching job she had held for 20 years.
He said officials acted within their legal authority to fire her because school officials can give more weight to complaints and concerns raised by students and parents, particularly when students complain, as they allegedly did in this instance, that comments from teachers make them feel unsafe. And that, he said, means their concerns can trump the free speech rights of teachers.
The decision "to dismiss Hedgepeth based on public reaction to her speech did not amount to a 'heckler’s veto,'" Shah wrote. "The First Amendment generally prohibits the suppression of unpopular speech because of audience reaction; but in this context, students and parents are not a mere audience.
"The concerns raised by students and parents regarding Hedgepeth’s role as a teacher were a reasonable consideration for the District. Students and parents are not 'outsiders' attempting to silence speech, but 'participants in public education, without whose cooperation public education as a practical matter cannot function,'" the judge said.
Hedgepeth has been in court against District 211 since July 2021, when she first filed her First Amendment complaint in Chicago federal court. She has been represented in that action by attorneys with the conservative political action organization, Judicial Watch.
That lawsuit had come on the heels of a separate action she had brought against current District 211 board member and Black Lives Matter activist Tim McGowan, who she blamed for launching the effort to get her fired. That lawsuit would eventually be dismissed by a Cook County Circuit Court judge.
According to the federal complaint, Hedgepeth was illegally targeted for termination for comments she posted to Facebook critical of widespread rioting, looting and other unrest in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S. in 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in the custody of police.
In those comments, among others, Hedgepeth called for rioters to be "hosed down" with liquid human waste by septic trucks.
She further posted longer comments discussing her displeasure with the use of terms like "white privilege," critical of those who characterized the U.S. as systematically racist, and questioning why discussions on race cannot include statistical information concerning the murder rate among the black population, nor the abortion rate.
The lawsuit noted all of Hedgepeth's comments were on her personal Facebook page, and she did not identify herself as a teacher or employee of District 211 or Palatine High School.
However, the complaint claimed Hedgepeth was immediately placed under investigation and ultimately fired by the school board, with the board citing her Facebook posts as justification.
Shah, however, said the school district did not violate her First Amendment rights.
Shah ruled that Hedgepeth cannot bring her claim in federal court, because she was required to challenge District 211's decision to fire her, and the bases for the termination, in state court.
But even if the lawsuit was properly in federal court, the judge said Hedgepeth's claims still fail under legal tests established by the courts to determine if a public employer, like District 211, violated the speech rights of a public employee, such as a public school teacher, like Hedgepeth.
Shah said in cases like this, courts can balance Hedgepeth's speech rights against the interest of the school district in minimizing disruption to the district's operations and learning environment.
Shah agreed with the school district's hearing officer, who drew up the case against Hedgepeth, that her "conduct was irremediable because it 'compromised, beyond repair ... her ability to continue to function effectively in her role' and her posts 'destroyed any possibility that she could be viewed as a fair and honest arbiter in the students' expressions of different perspectives.'"
The judge said evidence presented by District 211 demonstrated that the response to Hedgepeth's social media posts caused "actual disruption" at Palatine High School.
"While Hedgepeth’s posts touched on matters of public concern, the interest of the District in promoting the efficiency of its educational services to students outweighed her speech interests," the judge wrote.
District 211 and its school board members and administrators were represented in the action by attorneys William R. Pokorny, Sally J. Scott and Hailey M. Golds, of the firm of Franczek P.C., of Chicago.
Judicial Watch did not reply Friday to a request for comment about the decision from The Cook County Record.