In rural Wayne County last year, a Vegan elementary school teacher was fired because he essentially upset the districts “biggest tax payers” after using his personal Facebook page to criticize the inhumane treatment of cows at an area dairy farm. Today the teacher, represented by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, filed suit against the school board and its administrators alleging the teacher’s First Amendment rights were violated when he was canned following his post.
Keith Allison, who was working at Green Elementary School in Smithville, is a staunch vegan with “deeply held moral convictions, to abstain from consuming animal products.” Last summer, Allison posted a picture he took from the street of an unnamed local dairy farm, where cows where being held in rows of tiny crates. He included the following status:
This place is five miles from my house and, for those who don’t already know, these are crates to house baby dairy cows who are separated from their mothers usually within a day of birth. As someone who grew up feeling paternal love and support and now as a parent who gives paternal love and support, I reject the claim that separating babies from loving mothers to raise them isolated in boxes can ever be considered humane. — Keith
And:
The cruelty of separation, loneliness, and infant slaughter lingers inside each glass of cow’s milk. Your voice can help change the system. You don’t have to support this. Plant-based milks are everywhere and are delicious.
Here are the pictures he posted:
Somehow school administrators got ahold of the post, and they were not pleased. In August, he was called into a meeting with school principal Chris Miller and district superintendent Judy Robinson, where Robinson “explained that Wayne County had a large number of dairy farmers, and that teachers needed to be careful not to offend the local agricultural industry,” the suit says. Robinson told the teacher “he was free to believe whatever he wished, but that if he wished to continue to engage in vegan advocacy outside of work, he should reconsider being a teacher.” She also told him he’d be demoted and his pay rate “would be retroactively lowered he had already worked.”
A few days later, Robinson sent an email to school board members with an agenda for their upcoming meeting. The first thing Robinson mentions is Allison, and that his post upset local farmers who had kids in the district, and that he’d be let go because of it. Here’s what she said (emphasis ours):
Title I Tutor pulled from Monday’s agenda: he has been told, effective today, that we won’t be employing him at this time. I interviewed him with Chris Miller on Tuesday and he thinks the family is over-reacting to the posting of their house/crates online. The family enrolled their (3) children at Kingsway. It’s a difficult issue and we may lose his children as well but we need our teachers to really consider the whole community when doing these sort of things, especially when our biggest tax payers are dairy farmers.
On behalf of Keith Allison, lawyers for the ACLU, with some help from lawyers from PETA, are suing the the Green Local School District board, its board members, and the district superintendent, stating:
Defendants violated Allison’s constitutional rights by retaliating against him on the basis of his constitutionally-protected speech. Allison’s speech was on a matter of public concern, and was made in his capacity as a private citizen. Defendants had no valid interest that would justify punishing or censoring Allison for his commentary on dairy farming. In the alternative, any interest that Defendants had was outweighed by Allison’s interest in speaking, as a private citizen, on an issue of political and social importance. Defendants retaliated against Allison for his constitutionally-protected speech by revoking his offer of employment as a Title I tutor, refusing to hire him as a substitute teacher, and retroactively docking his pay.
Read the full suit here:
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2015.
I’m so glad he go his job back. The dairy industry needs to be exposed!
you know what’s messed up.. someone I know who was a teacher got fired for giving a kid of vegan parents a candy that had Gelatin in it.. Now that’s crossing a line cause he got fired for it even though the kid asked for it and NO ONE told him that he was vegain and honestly HOW MANY PEOPLE REALLY KNOW GELLTON IS MADE FROM ANIMAL PRODUCTS!!!!!! Like think jello, gummy bears and so on.. I know you or me may know but I think we both can honestly previce that most ppl dont.. hence every time I say what its made out of I get shocked faces from ppl I know. Now I’m vegan so I get it but using your kids as a political crusade or to force your own ideal on them when it can affect their health is nuts since kids need protein and without sublimation living both vegan and vegetarian in developmental years can have some harmful effects if your not aware of proper nutrition.
This made me so mad when I heard he got fired over it. Not to mention months later after the fact when the mom wanted to go out and complain about things long after the fact.. My friend may end up homeless because of this action since its so hard to get a job like that after having ‘fired” on their record.. this overly politically correct world is starting to make me since and I’M USUALLY ONE OF THE FIRST TO CHAMPION PEOPLES RIGHTS TO BE DIFFERENT AND LIVE HOW THEY CHOOSE AND BELIEVE WHAT THEY CHOOSE but c’mon…
people who are different can clearly be just as snobby, cold hearted, vindictive, and spiteful as anyone else.. not to mention self ritchus,, yes I admit objectively I have some slight bias in this subject since the person was my friend but I should clear up im not assuming the kids parents are any of those things I was just saying in as a matter of fact kind of way, cause what happened their is just a symptom of a much larger sociological disease sweeping our nation which is ” in effort to create more equality we start oppressing those who fit the previous norms”.. sometimes like that.
I should also note that when the teacher (my friend) learned of the kids veganism he apologised to the parents and said he would not repeat that mistake. they all seemed to accept the apology, only to bring it up again months later when its convenient. getting fired for something that happened long ago and was already dealt with is in ites self kind of messed up let alone the whole reason why over an honest mistake thats so easy to make in this new uppity world full of holier then tho hippocrates who have NO IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO BE A TEACHER WITH KIDS THAT HAVE LESS DISCIPLINE AND PARENTS THAT SWOOP IN LIKE HAWKES OVER THE MOST PETTY RIDICULOUS THINGS.. seems the only way to be a successful teacher now – a – days is to be a drop dead gorgeous female that everyone else views until you can get 10 year.