Fired Teacher Wins $750,000 in Trial
A high school teacher, fired for letting her students use profanity in skits and poems, has been awarded $750,000 after a federal trial.
Cissy Lacks, a teacher for 25 years, called Monday’s decision against the Ferguson-Florissant School District “a really important statement.” The district plans to appeal.
Lacks was fired from Berkeley High School after the school board found out she had allowed 11th-graders to use street language in a creative writing assignment. A federal judge reinstated her in August. District lawyers said students uttered a profanity every 12 seconds on average in the skits.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
