The 9th Circuit yesterday affirmed a district court's dismissal of an action that had been brought by a former California high school student against his history teacher. (See
prior posting.) Chad Farnan claimed that in his sophomore Advanced Placement European History class, teacher James Corbett violated the Establishment clause by making statements that were hostile toward religion in general and Christianity in particular. In
C.F. v. Capistrano Unified School District, the 9th Circuit held that claims for declaratory relief were moot since plaintiff had graduated and was no longer in the high school. Moving to plaintiff's claim for nominal damages, the 9th Circuit held:
Mindful that there has never been any prior reported case holding that a teacher violated the Constitution under comparable circumstances, we affirm the district court’s conclusion that the teacher is entitled to qualified immunity. Because it is readily apparent that the law was not clearly established at the time of the events in question, and because we may resolve the appeal on that basis alone, we decline to pass upon the constitutionality of the teacher’s challenged statements.
In discussing whether a rule of law had been clearly established, the court commented:
In broaching controversial issues like religion, teachers must be sensitive to students’ personal beliefs and take care not to abuse their positions of authority....But teachers must also be given leeway to challenge students to foster critical thinking skills and develop their analytical abilities. This balance is hard to achieve, and we must be careful not to curb intellectual freedom by imposing dogmatic restrictions that chill teachers from adopting the pedagogical methods they believe are most effective.
The
Christian Science Monitor reports on the 9th Circuit's decision.
