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(SF Chronicle) – A sixth-grade teacher who brought a MAGA hat — the “Make America Great Again” slogan of then-President Donald Trump — to teachers-only training sessions had a constitutional right to do so and can sue the principal who allegedly threatened to fire him, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Thursday.
Eric Dodge, a longtime instructor at the Evergreen School District in Vancouver, Wash., wore the hat to a training session on cultural sensitivity and racial bias just before the 2019-20 school year, and took it off when he entered the building, but left it in view. Afterward, the professor who conducted the session told the school principal that she felt intimidated, and a few of the 60 participants also complained.
When the principal, Caroline Garrett, spoke to Dodge in his science classroom later that day, he told her he had worn the hat to protect his head from sunspots but also because he supported Trump and liked the message. Garrett said she told Dodge that some people consider the hat a “symbol of hate and bigotry” and that while she could not forbid him to wear it, he should use “better judgment.”
Dodge brought the hat to another training session the next day, then left it in his truck on the following day. He said Garrett met with him again, called him a bigot, and told him that the next time she saw him with the hat, “you need to have your union rep. Bring your rep because I’ll have mine.” Garrett disputed Dodge’s account of the meeting but said she considered Dodge’s conduct to be “insubordination.”
Dodge filed a complaint with the school district accusing Garrett of harassment and intimidation. The school board ordered an investigation, then found that Dodge had not violated any policies and approved his transfer to another school, while also requiring district officials to educate employees about holding political discussions without violating anyone’s free-speech rights. Saying it had received complaints from other parents about Garrett, the board expressed concerns about her “professionalism” and said she would face disciplinary proceedings unless she resigned as principal. She resigned at the end of the school year.
Dodge sued Garrett and the school district for damages in 2020, claiming violations of his free-speech rights. The suit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge James Robart, who said it had not been clearly established at the time of the events that the principal’s actions, as alleged by Dodge, violated the Constitution, the standard the Supreme Court has set for such cases. Robart also said there was no evidence that the district had approved any of Garrett’s allegedly unconstitutional actions.
On Thursday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the dismissal of Dodge’s suit against the school district but reinstated his claims against Garrett.
