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Civil rights Keyed to Jeffries, 5th Ed.
Memphis Community School District v. Stachura
Citation:
477 U.S. 299, 106 S.Ct. 2537, 91 L.Ed.2d 249 (1986)Facts
Edward Stachura was a tenured teacher in the Memphis, Michigan public schools who taught seventh-grade life science using an approved textbook that included a chapter on human reproduction. During the 1978-1979 school year, he spent six weeks on this chapter, showing pictures of his pregnant wife and two films on human growth and sexuality that had been approved by the school principal and provided by the County Health Department. After parents complained about his teaching methods, largely based on inaccurate rumors about sexually explicit content, a heated School Board meeting was held on April 23, 1979. Following the superintendent’s advice, Stachura did not attend this meeting where parents expressed that he should not be allowed to teach in the Memphis school system. The day after the meeting, Stachura was suspended with pay. The School Board later confirmed the suspension, notifying him that an “administration evaluation” of his teaching methods was underway, though no such evaluation was ever conducted. Stachura was reinstated the following fall after filing his lawsuit. At trial, the jury was instructed that they could award damages not only for actual injuries but also based on the abstract value of the constitutional rights that were violated.
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