Continued...
In a 1915 contract, female teachers had to promise "not to keep company with men; to be home between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. unless in attendance at a school function; not to loiter downtown in ice cream stores; and not to get in a carriage or automobile with any man except her father or brother."
Similar restraints were imposed even after the First World War. For example, a 1935 Virginia contract specified that teachers could not keep company with "sorry young men." A Tennessee contract required that the teacher "refrain from any and all questionable pastimes." An Alabama contract required the teacher to promise that, if employed, she "will not have company or go automobile riding on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights . . . ." One young teacher echoed Royce's remark, "How I conduct my classes seems to be of no great interest to the school authorities . . . but what I do when school is not in session concerns them tremendously."
Some courts have upheld the right of school boards to fire teachers that take outside employment, or for living with a person of the opposite sex. In more recent times they are being fired for living with a person of the same sex. One recent case held that a school teacher could be fired for engaging in an altercation with his wife and mother-in-law which resulted in his arrest. Older cases suggest that teachers may be fired for immoral conduct for behavior creating a suspicion of immorality because of the harmful impressions made on students. Until recently, teachers could be fired for criticizing the conduct of elected members of the board of education or the superintendent. Other courts have held that absent a statute or contract, a board of education may require teachers to come early, stay late, and assist in the performance of duties necessary to the operation of the schools. Older cases upheld the right of school boards to fire teachers because they were too old.
Such attitudes survive in some school districts today, particularly in small towns and rural communities. In the 1970s a Wyoming federal jury found that one of the reasons for the non-renewal of a teacher's contract was her lack of church attendance and the conduct of her personal life. She testified that the principal had informed her, among other things, that "there was dissatisfaction in the community with the fact that she played cards . . . ." In one case, the principal fired a female teacher because she had a male visitor who stayed over night. To obtain this vital information, the principal had staked out the teacher's home for an entire week. Continue >>