A now-retired math teacher in Florida has won an appeal in a case involving his First Amendment rights. The 5th District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Thomas Caggiano, who the Duval County School Board disciplined for posting derogatory comments about Bernie Sanders on Facebook.
The court overturned the school board’s decision to suspend Caggiano without pay for three days and issue a reprimand. The court also ordered that Caggiano’s pay be reinstated from the time he was suspended.
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The case stemmed from a series of Facebook posts by Caggiano, which included reposts of third-party content that was critical of Sanders. The school board argued that Caggiano’s posts were unprofessional and violated district policy.
However, the appeals court disagreed. The court said that Caggiano’s posts were protected speech and that the school board’s discipline was unjustified.
The court’s opinion, authored by Judge Scott Makar and supported by Judges Harvey Jay and Adrian Soud, asserted that “At best, the reposts demonstrated that Caggiano disliked Senator Sanders (for his use of sexist language) and was amused by sophomoric humor (that in no way promoted violence).”
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The court stated, “The posts occurred outside of the school, on Caggiano’s own time and computer, and amounted to little more than harmless political chitchat; they collectively amounted to the proverbial hill of beans.”
This ruling reinforces the protection of free speech rights, particularly in the context of personal social media activity.
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