Teacher Fired for 'Have You Drugged Your Kid Today' Bumper Sticker

on March 3, 2011 at 5:49 PM

teacher Another day, another round of parents claiming the right to free speech doesn't apply to the education field. Remember the teacher who blogged anonymously about how much she hated her students? This time we've got an English teacher who doesn't "hate" kids so much as she's frustrated by their parents. Speaking out still got her fired.

Tarah Ausburn, English teacher at Imagine Prep High School in Surprise, Arizona, put a bumper sticker on her Toyota Prius that read, "Have you drugged your kid today?" Insulting to some? Sure, but Ausburn told KPHO:

I just like the ability to take a controversial topic and sum it up in one clever line. I'm an English teacher; that's what I do ... It's kind of a criticism of us tending to over-medicate hyperactive kids who might not need those medications.

She's waaaaaaaay over-generalizing. We all know kids who need medications, parents who did a lot of soul-searching before they put their "hyperactive kids" on some sort of pill. Members of my own family were forced to make that decision, and it wasn't an easy one. And one of the most telling parts of Judith Warner's book, We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication, about the "myth" of the over-medicated child was the point where she set aside her pre-conceived notions about medications and sat down to talk to parents face to face. As Warner said:

As I stopped talking at people about my ideas, and started listening instead to real parents telling real-life stories, I heard of children struggling terribly with conditions that parents, very often, at first didn't want to see. I heard how parents fought the use of medication -- accepted it only (if they accepted it at all) after much struggle and soul-searching, and often after trying out every alternative available.

But when did we have to start agreeing with one another in order to live peacefully? Ausburn's bumper sticker just made a huge leap, but it's one that's not illegal. It's not completely off the wall -- the success of Warner's book proved that it's an opinion many Americans share. It doesn't use foul language that would be inappropriate on school grounds or suggest the kids use illegal drugs.

She's talking about a controversial issue in America, presenting it in an unusual way, to get people thinking and talking. Sounds like what a teacher does, doesn't it?

Tarah Ausburn really should talk to some parents of medicated kids, walk a day in their shoes, then decide if she needs to keep that bumper sticker. But if having an opinionated bumper sticker makes her a bad teacher, let's fire all the teachers with the Obama stickers, the McCain/Palin stickers, the "if you can read this, thank a teacher" bumper stickers, the Jesus fish ...

Should she be hired back or was the school in the right?

Image via Corey Leopold/Flickr

About the author Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. Diet Pepsi courses through her veins. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

Filed Under: drugs & alcohol, issues

Comments (12)

Facebook comment from Tonya Campbell

on Mar 3, 2011 at 6:00 PM

You would think that if we can let the Westboro Church continue to protest at funerals, we can let the teacher keep her bumper sticker without discrimination. Gotta love how America pick and chooses it's right of the First Amendment.

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Bethsunshine

on Mar 3, 2011 at 6:08 PM

If a bunch of crazy, evil nut jobs can harrass the families of dead soldiers at funerals, then this teacher should be allowed to put whatever she wants on her car!! If the First Amendment is good for one, it's good for everyone. If I were her, I'd sue the school. I'm not one for frivolous lawsuits, but in this case, she has every reason to fight this.

PonyChaser

on Mar 3, 2011 at 7:44 PM

I don't see this as a matter of free speech, I see it as a matter of professionalism. I saw the other case (the blogging teacher) the same way. Take her out of the classroom for a moment, and place her in the boardroom. If she showed up at work with a "Have you drugged your client today?" bumper sticker on her car, how do you think her bosses would view that? Would she even consider doing it? Perhaps they wouldn't care, and perhaps the bosses wouldn't either. But more than likely, it would be frowned upon, and rightly so, because it reflects poorly on the company.

In this case, we are always admonished to be careful of what we put on Facebook, keep our settings private, don't put something on the internet that you don't want getting back to your workplace. As professional people, we are told to always consider how our behavior will reflect upon our business - during business hours (and sometimes after). The same goes for teachers.

Do I think that this particular teacher should have been fired over a bumper sticker? Heck no. But should her principal have pulled her aside and said, "hey, that's probably not the best thing to have on your car, it can be seriously misinterpreted"? yeah, I think so, because personally, I don't think it's very professional. And once again, I suspect that there's a lot going on here that we don't know about.

happytexasCM

on Mar 3, 2011 at 8:58 PM

Freedom of speech protects you from the government, not from your boss. It does not mean that you can say whatever you like without consequences. She isn't being prevented by anyone from saying what she wants, she just isn't going to do it as an employee of that school. It's common sense that you don't trash your employer/employment in public.

As a parent who "drugs her kid" every day so he doesn't run around in circles all day, destroy property, and assault people, I would not want her teaching my child.

DebaLa

on Mar 4, 2011 at 1:56 PM

I'm with Tonya and Beth here. There's no perspective here. People need to butt out of other people's personal business. A bumper sticker on someone's personal mode of transportation, that is not driven into a classroom, or used in any class lesson is off limits (sorry, PonyChaser, apples and oranges). If it were a gov't-issued car, yes. Questionable taste? Maybe. The reality is perhaps this was the last straw in a string of incidents. And in this economy with continued cuts in education, those people are the most at risk. Some parents need to grow up and set the better example *themselves* by doing their children a favor to weather any explanations they might have to give to their children about how the real world works which is unfailingly controversial. Do they really think the world is going to sanitize every message out there so the their little darlings' feelings won't get hurt?

MookiesMom739

on Mar 4, 2011 at 2:34 PM

Why do we care what's on her car? As for not wanting her to teach my children.. I bet there are alot of other teachers with all kinds of things going on in their lives that we don't know about (and might find questionable) and they still manage to teach our chilrdren just fine.... People are way too politically correct & judgemental today

on Mar 4, 2011 at 10:18 PM

This isn't about something "going on in her life", this is about her attitude towards parents who medicate their children for ADHD. As a teacher she is bound to have the children of those parents in her class.

We share a lot of personal medical information with our child's teacher, it takes a certain amount of trust that she isn't badmouthing the decisions we make about his care. After a horrible year of dealing with my son's last school, the caring and professionalism of his new school is a great relief and has reduced a lot of my stress in dealing with this issue.

No one broke into her house and stole her diary, she put her opinion out there for all to see then repeated it in an interview.

Facebook comment from Miriam Kennedy

on Mar 5, 2011 at 6:24 PM

Sure, she shouldn't have an attitude about parents who choose to medicate their children to control their behaviour, because hey - it works right? Obviously since you're having less stress now.

Facebook comment from Jess Hurst

on Mar 5, 2011 at 11:08 PM

I hope her immediate superior at least requested that she remove the sticker before up and firing her. That would just be professional courtesy.

on Mar 6, 2011 at 4:59 AM

Agreed, Jess Hurst. Also, what are parents and students doing in the faculty parking lot? Aren't there district rules and ordinces prominently posted about this, and in their parent handbooks? Talk about stepping over the line...