Sumner County Education Association, Schools Headed to Court Again

The Sumner County teacher’s union has again sued the district. It’s the second lawsuit this year. This one claims the school system is violating teacher’s first amendment rights by setting up roadblocks to the union.

Since last year, the Sumner County School Board has wrangled with the Sumner County Education Association over whether the union should be allowed to represent teachers in contract negotiations. The union took the argument to court and won this spring.

Then, the state legislature passed a new law, replacing traditional negotiations with something called “collaborative conferencing.”

According to the lawsuit filed this week by the union, the schools director issued a memo to all teachers, saying the new law meant the union had no right to have any sort of presence on school property. No notices in teacher’s lounges, no meetings in classrooms, no fliers in the workroom mailboxes. The filing goes on to allege that when union leaders complained, the district responded by threatening a lawsuit.

The union beat them to it. Their suit claims that the district’s wholesale ban violates teachers’ rights to free speech, freedom of association, and to petition the courts when they feel they’ve been wronged. It also contends that the district is breaking the new, “collaborative conferencing” law, saying that law continues to give teachers the right to organize and choose their own representatives. The union is asking for an immediate injunction, followed by a trial.