By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

The “Legal Question of the Week” is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to: legalmailbagcasciacorg. _________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Legal Mailbag:

One of the parents at my school asked me for a favor – to let her knitting club meet in a classroom after school – but I told her no because I didn’t want to set a precedent of community groups using my school. Ever since then, however, it seems that I can do no right. According to this parent, recess is too long, the building is too cold, teachers are poorly supervised, you name it.

I know that parents have the right to complain, but I think that she went too far last week by circulating a petition “to reassign or fire” me. She must be a lawyer or something, because the petition starts with a bunch of “Whereas” clauses like “Whereas Mr. Principal is not up to the job of running our school,” and “Whereas Mr. Principal is not cooperative with parents,” and, the unkindest cut of all, “Whereas Mr. Principal is quite unsophisticated, . . . .” After all these obnoxious criticisms, the petition states that undersigned demand that the Superintendent remove me from my position “by any means possible.” I talked to the Superintendent about this parent and her petition, and he told me not to worry. However, it is hard for me not to worry when a parent is so relentlessly after my head. Can’t I sue her for defamation or something?

Signed,
Bulls Eye on My Chest

Dear Bulls Eye:

Public service can be rewarding, but it does have its downsides. As you note, criticism of your decisions goes with the territory. As a school administrator, you certainly have to develop a thick skin. But defamation is entirely different, and based on what you shared with me, you don’t have a claim for defamation.

The elements of defamation are (1) an assertion of fact, (2) that is untrue, and (3) that harms one’s reputation. Here, the parent has criticized (1) your ability to cooperate with parents, (2) your competence, and (3) your sophistication. Each of these statements is an expression of opinion, not of fact. Accordingly, none of these statements could be the basis for a defamation claim.

Even when parents (and others) make statements of fact, defamation claims are subject to special rules when the potentially-injured party is a public official. Then, special rules apply because of the First Amendment concern that the public should generally be free to speak about public officials without fear of being sued. Accordingly, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that defamation claims against public officials will be upheld only if a false statement that harms one’s reputation is made with malice or with reckless disregard for the truth. That is indeed a very high bar. Moreover, in 1992 the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that even teachers are subject to this special rule as “public officials” for purposes of defamation, which of course clearly means that administrators are “public officials” for this purpose as well.

To be sure, if a parent were to allege that you are a drug dealer, for example, that would be a (presumably false) factual assertion for which the parent could be held liable in defamation unless the parent had some reasonable basis for that claim. However, here we don’t even get to the special rules about public figures and defamation because the parent is expressing an opinion as to your competence. Sorry about that.