Case: Individual Employment Rights/First Amendment (D.N.J.)

A federal district court in New Jersey granted summary judgment to the Bayonne Board of Education on the First Amendment retaliation claims of a teacher and athletic trainer claiming she was demoted for reporting that a high school football coach was giving painkillers to football players, and subjected to a hostile work environment. The teacher’s speech that she alleged led to retaliation was was made pursuant to her job duties as an athletic trainer the form of complaints to her supervisor—the athletic director—and to school board officials within her chain of command, rather than in a public forum as a ...