Doyle v. Mt. Healthy City School Dist. Bd. of Ed.
| Decision Date | 13 January 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 80-3422,80-3422 |
| Citation | 670 F.2d 59 |
| Parties | 2 Ed. Law Rep. 973 Fred DOYLE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MT. HEALTHY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Frederick G. Cloppert, Jr., Columbus, Ohio, Robert M. Weinberg, Gary L. Sasso, Bredhoff, Gottesman, Cohen, Chanin, Weinberg & Petramalo, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff-appellant.
John C. Burkholder, Columbus, Ohio, Philip S. Olinger, Terrace Park, Ohio, for defendants-appellees.
Before EDWARDS, Chief Circuit Judge, ENGEL, Circuit Judge, and PECK, Senior Circuit Judge.
This case has a lengthy history which has been fully recited in Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977). The background facts, which have not changed at all, were recited fully by Justice Rehnquist's opinion:
Doyle was first employed by the Board in 1966. He worked under one-year contracts for the first three years, and under a two-year contract from 1969 to 1971. In 1969 he was elected president of the Teachers' Association, in which position he worked to expand the subjects of direct negotiation between the Association and the Board of Education. During Doyle's one-year term as president of the Association, and during the succeeding year when he served on its executive committee, there was apparently some tension in relations between the Board and the Association.
Beginning early in 1970, Doyle was involved in several incidents not directly connected with his role in the Teachers' Association. In one instance, he engaged in an argument with another teacher which culminated in the other teacher's slapping him. Doyle subsequently refused to accept an apology and insisted upon some punishment for the other teacher. His persistence in the matter resulted in the suspension of both teachers for one day, which was followed by a walkout of a number of other teachers, which in turn resulted in the lifting of the suspensions.
On other occasions, Doyle got into an argument with employees of the school cafeteria over the amount of spaghetti which had been served him; referred to students, in connection with a disciplinary complaint, as "sons of bitches"; and made an obscene gesture to two girls in connection with their failure to obey commands made in his capacity as cafeteria supervisor. Chronologically the last in the series of incidents which respondent was involved in during his employment by the Board was a telephone call by him to a local radio station. It was the Board's consideration of this incident which the court below found to be a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
In February 1971, the principal circulated to various teachers a memorandum relating to teacher dress and appearance, which was apparently prompted by the view of some in the administration that there was a relationship between teacher appearance and public support for bond issues. Doyle's response to the receipt of the memorandum-on a subject which he apparently understood was to be settled by joint teacher-administration action-was to convey the substance of the memorandum to a disc jockey at WSAI, a...
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