On February 4, 2021, Governor Lamont issued Executive Order 10, which requires local and regional boards of education to continue to provide paid leave
Continue Reading Governor Lamont Extends FFCRA Paid Leave Provisions for School Employees

Emerging School Law Issues
On February 4, 2021, Governor Lamont issued Executive Order 10, which requires local and regional boards of education to continue to provide paid leave…
Continue Reading Governor Lamont Extends FFCRA Paid Leave Provisions for School Employees
In recent years male students who were removed from school following a Title IX investigation have sued, claiming that the school’s investigation was unfair and…
Continue Reading Insufficient Investigation Allows Lawsuit to Proceed
Originally appeared in the CAS Weekly Newsletter.
Written by attorney Thomas B. Mooney.
Dear Legal Mailbag:
As the assistant principal in a middle…
Continue Reading CAS Legal Mailbag Question of the Week – 5/29/2019
Join Shipman & Goodwin labor and employment attorneys Peter Murphy and Greg Jones for this complimentary CLE webinar reviewing effective legal strategies for dealing with…
Continue Reading CLE Webinar: Strategies for Dealing with Difficult Employees
The members of the Nutmeg Board of Education want to do what they can to improve student achievement in Nutmeg, which has been lagging in…
Continue Reading SEE YOU IN COURT! – April 2019
Originally appeared in the CAS Weekly Newsletter.
Written by attorney Thomas B. Mooney.
Dear Legal Mailbag:
As a principal, I think that most…
Continue Reading CAS Legal Mailbag Question of the Week – 3/27/2019
As the Nutmeg Board of Education was preparing to reconvene into open session after completing its executive session discussion last week, veteran Board member Bob…
Continue Reading SEE YOU IN COURT! – March 2019
Originally appeared in the CAS Weekly Newsletter.
Written by attorney Thomas B. Mooney.
Dear Legal Mailbag:
I am an assistant principal at a…
Continue Reading CAS Legal Mailbag Question of the Week – 2/27/2019
Originally appeared in the CAS Weekly Newsletter.
Written by attorney Thomas B. Mooney.
Dear Legal Mailbag:
As a new administrator, I am excited…
Continue Reading CAS Legal Mailbag Question of the Week – 1/16/2019
Originally appeared in the CAS Weekly Newsletter.
Written by attorney Thomas B. Mooney.
Dear Legal Mailbag:
One of the teachers in my building is quite involved in political affairs and he regularly posts commentary on his blog. This week, however, I think that he went too far. Posting about the results of the recent election, he offered the observation that the mayor and entire political establishment in my town should be very worried because their days in control of town affairs are numbered. That was bad enough, but then he went on to recount a number of incidents in which the mayor had made mistakes and embarrassed himself. Unfortunately, I was not alone in my concern; the mayor’s assistant called me up to ask what I was going to do about this “disloyalty” by a town employee. I told him that it’s a free country and that the teacher has a right to express himself. The response from the mayor’s assistant, however, was concerning. He just responded curtly that he would report back to the mayor on where I stand.
I do believe that teachers do have free speech rights but, given the conversation with the mayor’s assistant, I thought that I should do something. I called the teacher down to the office and asked him in my most charming voice if he ever considered toning it down. I explained that the mayor tries hard and has a lot of influence. Maybe it would be better for everyone, I wondered aloud with him, if he would stop criticizing the mayor. The teacher was polite but non-committal. In any event, I was shocked to read in his next blog post his version of our meeting. There, he described how I had sought to “stifle” his “free speech,” and he declared that he would never be silenced.
Now I am mad. Can I discipline the teacher for publicizing a private meeting in which I simply counseled him that his obnoxious posts may not be worth the trouble they cause?
Thank you,
Righteously Indignant
…
Continue Reading CAS Legal Mailbag Question of the Week – 11/14/2018