Louisiana bus drivers fight for the right to raise their concerns about public safety

Members in Shreveport, LA, continue to stand up for their most basic rights as the school district there tries to silence them.

When school started this year, bus drivers who belong to the Caddo Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel ran tests on the heat and humidity aboard their buses and found temperatures spiking to 116 degrees. Once this information became public, the school district tried to silence employees by forbidding them from conducting surveys or studies without permission.

The union is challenging this rule for what it is: a violation of the right to free speech. The only purpose of the rule, notes Caddo federation president Jackie Lansdale in the Shreveport Times, is to stop anyone from revealing public safety concerns that might embarrass the school board.

"It would, for example, prevent the PTA from asking if there are enough textbooks to go around, or if discipline is a problem in our schools," she wrote.

The local union simply wants the board to consider starting the school year later or taking measures to prevent heat exhaustion. Now the union is seeking legal advice and has begun a media campaign, including newspaper ads, radio spots and an LCD billboard (shown below), to bring this gag rule to the attention of the community.

Acting in the public interest "is precisely the reason our founding fathers wrote the First Amendment," Lansdale wrote. "It is how we keep our public institutions honest."