Considerable attention is often given to student liability issues, but it is equally crucial to acknowledge the legal responsibilities of educational institutions regarding employee rights. This is particularly pertinent for employees of public K-12 schools and public universities, though employees of private schools and other youth-serving institutions may have contractual rights.
Wrongful Hiring and Termination Practices Persist
Wrongful termination of school employees remains common, despite existing labor laws and contractual terms. At the same time, biases continue to influence hiring decisions. As a result, legal actions against schools for violations of employee or teacher employment rights are rampant. Objective insights from a hiring and wrongful termination expert witness are vital in these cases.
Common Grounds for School Employment Lawsuits
Schools can terminate employees for the right reasons, including immorality and poor performance, but can be held liable for unfair or arbitrary hiring or termination acts, such as:
- Discrimination: Refusing to hire someone or firing a school employee based on their race, gender, age, religion, disability, or other protected characteristics.
- Retaliation: Termination for complaining about harassment, reporting illegal activity, or refusing to participate in inappropriate acts or safety violations.
- Contract violation: Termination that violates the terms of the employment contract.
- Violation of due process: Failing to follow the legal or contractual teacher termination process.
- Termination due to a legally protected leave
Expert Witness Services in School Employment Cases
A hiring and wrongful termination expert witness can provide valuable insights to determine liability, whether you are building a case against a school for employee rights violations or defending a suit. The court-qualified experts at School Liability Expert Group have unmatched expertise in teacher employment rights, wrongful termination of school employees, negligent hiring practices, and other employee rights matters.
Who We Serve
Attorneys
Plaintiff and defendant attorneys can engage our team of employee and teacher termination expert witnesses for expert case reviews, depositions, expert testimony during trials, comprehensive reports, and consultations. Hundreds of law firms have sought our expertise in school liability matters across the United States and Canada. As a result, we bring the resources of a larger firm and the attention of a smaller practice to assist with your case.
Schools
A hiring and wrongful termination expert witness from School Liability Expert Group can provide consultations to help public and private schools review their policies and practices for screening, hiring, supervision, and termination of school employees to ensure compliance with legal and contractual obligations. We will make recommendations for improvement to prevent costly litigation. In addition, we can provide training and presentations to help staff understand their rights and safety laws related to education.
School Employees
For school employees, if you didn’t know and are wondering, “Do employees have rights?” and “What rights do teachers have?”, among many other questions, our hiring and wrongful termination expert witness team is here to enlighten and empower you to advocate for your legal rights to a safe and healthy work environment and team up with your attorney.
What Rights Do School Employees Have?
Legal Protections
The following legal statutes are just a few meant to protect employees in public entities, including public schools and universities:
- The right to be free from discrimination and harassment based on protected characteristics such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information.
- Entitlement to fair wages and job-protected family and medical leave.
- Right to safe and healthy working conditions and compensation for work-related accidents.
- Free speech and expression protections.
- The right to due process in disciplinary actions and termination, including notice of charges, a hearing, and an opportunity to present evidence and witnesses in their defense.
Contractual Rights
A hiring and wrongful termination expert witness would acknowledge that employees with employment contracts or those working in private entities may have additional rights and protections outlined in their contracts, such as terms of employment, job responsibilities, salary, benefits, and the process for teacher termination.
Other public or private school employees’ rights may include protection from retaliation for exercising their legal rights or reporting violations of laws and policies. They also have the right to representation by a union or legal counsel in employment-related matters, including disciplinary proceedings and negotiations with the employer.
Expert Insights in Proving Violation of Rights
Wrongful termination of school employees rooted in discrimination, retaliation, or taking a protected leave constitutes a violation of the above rights. A hiring and wrongful termination expert witness would be well-versed with all pertinent employee and teacher employment rights rooted in state and federal laws, enabling them to assist in litigation.
A teacher termination expert witness from School Liability Expert Group can evaluate the school district’s actions in relation to its legal obligations, employment policies, contracts, and collective bargaining agreements. We will then provide testimony with objective insights about potential liability.
What Rights Do Teachers Have?
The rights of teachers vary depending on factors such as their employment status (e.g., full-time, part-time, tenured, contractual), the type of institution (public, private), and applicable laws and regulations specific to their state. Public school teachers, for instance, are entitled to most federal and state rights by virtue of public employment.
The hiring and wrongful termination expert witness team at School Liability Expert Group is proficient in the legal protections specific to teachers, including tenure rights, academic freedom, contracts, certification, privacy rights, and more. We can provide a teacher termination expert witness to elucidate teacher employment rights in cases of wrongful termination of school employees.
What Are Teacher Tenure Rights?
Most states define laws that help prevent wrongful termination of school employees, particularly public school teachers, while protecting them from salary deductions, demotion, and other potential violations of employee rights.
Tenure laws typically include a probationary employment period and, afterward, an automatic or board-granted tenure that renews annually. Tenures also usually require a teacher termination process to be both procedural and substantive, in accordance with constitutional due process rights provisions.
Our hiring and wrongful termination expert witness would testify on whether a school breached any tenure rights during the litigation involving the wrongful termination of school employees.
Private School Teacher Rights
State tenure laws and civil rights, such as teacher termination due process, do not protect private school teachers, but, as a teacher termination expert witness would emphasize, they can still enjoy other general civil rights, like non-discrimination and more. They are also entitled to other rights stipulated in their contract documents.
Ignorance about such teacher employment rights can expose institutions to cases of wrongful termination of school employees and other violations of employee rights. A wrongful termination expert witness from School Liability Expert Group can help shed light on whether a private school violated applicable legal protections or contractual obligations.
Some Limitations in School Employee Rights
The challenge with education laws is that certain rights guaranteed to school employees are more precisely specified than others. This poses challenges in wrongful termination cases. Less sharply defined school employee rights are the teachers’ freedom of expression, specifically the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment, as well as the right to non-discrimination.
The Right to Free Speech and Academic Freedom
As a hiring and wrongful termination expert witness would emphasize, some school employee rights intersect with student rights. In the context of academic freedom in the classroom, a teacher’s right to free speech is curtailed by a student’s right to an undisrupted education. In exercising this right, teachers should tread carefully, as the constitutional provisions may not protect some of their actions.
Our teacher termination expert can evaluate school liability in scenarios where student and teacher employment rights overlap.
Safeguarding Student Rights
Teachers and other employees must uphold their responsibilities when it comes to student rights and school policies. Teachers, for instance, are expected to adapt their academic freedom to ensure all students, including those with disabilities, are equally set up for success in their classroom.
Just as teachers are protected from discrimination, school employees must not discriminate against or otherwise harm students while exercising their freedom of expression. Within the confines of their responsibilities and duty to students, teachers can choose how they express themselves in the classroom.
Understanding Restricted Rights is Key
A hiring and wrongful termination expert witness would emphasize the need to note limitations of academic freedom when establishing wrongful termination of school employees. Examples of speech and expression rights that schools can restrict include, but are not limited to, statements driven by personal or political agendas, as well as commentary or social media posts found to disrupt the educational process.
The need for expert consulting services on employee and teacher terminations to review cases of employee rights violations usually stems from gray areas, such as what exactly qualifies as “disruptive.”
Court Decisions on Freedom of Speech
The hiring and wrongful termination expert witness team from School Liability Expert Group is committed to staying updated on changes and nuances arising from cases involving everyday violations of employee rights.
A 1968 Supreme Court case, Pickering v. Board of Education, clarified that a public employee’s right to free speech is protected as long as the employee does not knowingly or recklessly share false statements. However, this protection was challenged in the case of Damiano v. Grants Pass Sch. Dist. Court ruled that the school’s imperative to safeguard the safety and welfare of its students took precedence over the plaintiff’s right to express opinions on issues of public concern, such as the district’s policies on gender identity.
The Right to Non-Discrimination
Freedom from discrimination is protected and defined by the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. However, while discrimination allegations are serious, they may be challenging to prove, and a school or its district will fight hard against any accusations by school employees. For this reason, a wrongful termination expert witness is valuable in interpreting facts during cases involving discrimination.
Reliable Evidence is Vital
Even in negligent teacher retention that shows a discriminatory bias, schools may be liable for negligence if proper evidence is provided. It is vital to document any potential instances of discrimination and other rights violations, as schools are highly likely to deny any wrongdoing when matters escalate to litigation.
As part of our employee and teacher termination expert witness services, we review the facts of your case to assess the applicable laws and the institution’s employment policies and practices to determine any employee or teacher employment rights violations.
School Employee Screening, Hiring, and Termination Expert Witness Services
School Liability Expert Group is ready to assist with your case, whether you are:
- A plaintiff or defendant attorney seeking a wrongful termination expert witness, consultations, case reports, and deposition or trial testimonies regarding wrongful termination of school employees, improper teacher termination process, or other violation of school employee rights cases;
- A school seeking expert consultation, employee training, or recommendations to improve its program quality to maintain compliance with employee rights provisions and avoid costly lawsuits; or
- A school employee seeking a consultation with a wrongful termination expert witness or representation in matters involving discrimination, unjust dismissal, or other teacher employment rights violations.
We Bring Unmatched Expertise
School Liability Expert Group is an education expert witness firm with diversified experience in the school administration and supervision domain. Our team comprises highly trained, court-qualified experts. We have worked with hundreds of law firms throughout the United States and Canada. As such, our expertise in this unique industry is highly praised. Book a call today to discuss your matter with one of our experts on employee and teacher termination.
