An Alameda County Superior Court judge has ruled in CTA’s favor in the case of the San Leandro Teachers Association, which used school mailboxes to distribute a bulletin on the progress of contract negotiations. Because the bulletin included a recommendation for two school board candidates, the district threatened to suspend SLTA’s use of the school mailboxes.
For years, CTA has advised chapters that they could distribute information concerning local or statewide election recommendations via school mailboxes as long as the union’s logo was included or the information was contained in a newsletter addressing other issues.
Recent decisions by the Public Employment Relations Board, however, disagree with that interpretation of the Education Code.The code prohibits the use of school district funds, services or equipment to urge the support or defeat of any candidate or ballot initiative. PERB maintains that the school mailbox constitutes either “equipment” or a “service” of the school district.
When the San Leandro case came before PERB, it ruled in favor of the district, and dismissed CTA’s subsequent unfair practice charge.
CTA’s Department of Legal Services then filed a petition for a writ of mandate with the county superior court, arguing that the district’s policy of interpreting the Education Code so narrowly as to prevent the exclusive representative of employees from placing written material in the mailboxes violated state constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech.
“Barring speech simply because it is political speech is prohibited as a content based restriction,” said Judge Winifred Smith when she ruled that the district cannot censor SLTA’s political speech. She said the use of school mailboxes for fliers that happen to contain political endorsements does not violate the Education Code.
The judge added that the school mailbox is a forum open to SLTA because of its status as the exclusive representative. The union’s special access to the mailboxes does not extend to third parties.
The district has appealed the decision. Pending its resolution, CTA continues to advise chapters that the school mailbox is a legitimate carrier of the union’s political endorsements and other speech regarding candidates and ballot issues. The exclusive representative is free to inform members of its political endorsements via the school mailbox.
Any such communication, however, must make it clear that it’s coming from the exclusive representative of the school employees.