Teacher sues over Fallon student article

[tonysam]

The original story was posted a couple of months or so ago.

A Northern Nevada high school teacher has sued her principal and the district superintendent, claiming an article in the school newspaper damaged her reputation.

The suit by Kathy Archey, who teaches music at Churchill County High in Fallon, names district Superintendent Carolyn Ross, high school Principal Kevin Lords and journalism adviser Myke Nelson as defendants.

The complaint, filed March 5 in district court, stems from a student article published in January about parents' allegations that Archey was withholding student audition tapes for a state musical competition.

The suit said Archey has followed the same procedures in each of her eight years at Churchill High and submitted all voice tapes of students who qualified for auditions to join the honors choir.

The suit alleges that the faculty adviser to the student paper, The Flash, was the driving force behind the article because his son was one of the students who didn't make the cut for the auditions.

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It figures there would be some kind of office politics involved. The article shouldn't have been published and the teacher's name and reputation dragged through the mud for doing nothing wrong.

First Amendment, my ass.

[pnwmom]

1. I'd take the First Amendment over your ass any day.

The administration was right to protect the First amendment. If they thought they had a case for defamation, they had the option of just suing the student and his parents.

[tonysam]

3. You are WRONG, naturally. You have NO clue how EASY it is for any kind of media to RUIN teachers

when their names are made public. I've been there, and the allegations are far more vicious than this. THIS WAS NOT A SCANDAL, by the way, so there was nothing to report. Not all of the kids were going to win the auditions.

If you read the actual article, you'd know it was a crock.

By the way, if the article had been about the principal or the AP, the article would have been squelched. Count on it.

This isn't a fucking "first amendment" issue.

[tonysam]

4. NO. It was the SCHOOL and the administrators that were responsible.

The newspaper is a part of the school. The administrators have ultimate veto power over what goes into the paper. THAT'S why they are named in the suit.

I guess you don't know anything about how schools operate.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. If the article was about the allegations and did not make them itself, there is no case

This is not the UK where reputation damage alone can win such a suit.

[radical noodle]

5. Violating their policies and the teacher contract...

While I certainly believe in the freedom of speech, I don't believe in allowing misrepresentation of facts or manufacturing issues to hurt someone.

[mzteris]

6. nothing wrong?

She was negligent in her duty. She jeopardized students' futures for her failure to perform her job properly and without bias.