Simi Board Voids Suspensions Over Campaign Pins

The Simi Valley school board agreed late Tuesday to rescind suspension notices that were given to eight teachers for wearing political campaign buttons on campus and instead will issue letters of reprimand to them for disobeying orders.

However, an attorney for the California Teachers Assn., which has called a ban on campaign buttons unconstitutional, said Wednesday that she will file a lawsuit unless the district rescinds the letters of reprimand as well.

“They’ve essentially conceded that the policy is illegal but are nonetheless going to reprimand the teachers for something like ‘defiance of principals,’ ” said Rosalind Wolf, the teachers union attorney who will represent the teachers on behalf of the Simi Educators Assn.

The school board at its Tuesday meeting also called for a legal review of the 20-year-old district rule that administrators say prohibits any form of political campaigning by teachers, including the wearing of campaign buttons to school. Union officials said the rule violates the teachers’ right to free speech.

District Supt. John Duncan said several days before the Nov. 8 election, principals ordered teachers to remove campaign buttons that called for passage of Proposition 98, a school funding measure, or backed candidates for the school board.

All but eight teachers obeyed the orders, he said. Those eight--two from Royal High School, five from Valley View Junior High School and one from Sequoia Junior High School--were issued notices of 2-day suspensions without pay.

“The procedure in the district is that in any case where the principal gives a teacher a directive, they are expected to do it,” school board member Helen Beebe said. “It becomes insubordination if they do not do as they are asked.”

But teachers union attorney Wolf said that teachers did not have to obey orders to remove the buttons because they had already been advised by union officials that wearing campaign buttons is protected under the First Amendment.

“The policy of obey first and file a grievance later simply does not apply in First Amendment issues,” Wolf said. “Free speech can’t be prohibited in advance.”

The school board agreed to rescind the suspensions during a closed session Tuesday because the issue “was being blown out of proportion,” Duncan said.