Workplace Free Expression

The headline said “Donald Trump Jr. compares his sister’s breasts against Oakville teacher’s prosthetic bust”. The image of the trans high school shop teacher, which was shared many times on social media by their students, was the viral sensation of the week. It shows a trans person wearing long blonde hair, a mask, glasses, bike shorts, and a massive prosthetic bust, nipples and all, under a tight, thin shirt.

School administration moves slowly. Kids, however, rarely wait for the rules to catch up with their culture. They will be expressing their identities whenever and however they can. Are there basic principles that administrators in public education can use to avoid the conflicts that they are encountering daily? Perhaps.

On June 2, 2022, when Ontario voters went to the polls for the province’s 43rd general election, organizations employing more than 25 workers were obligated to have put in place a written policy on disconnecting from work; the so-called ‘right to disconnect.’

Freedom of Expression is an important foundation of a democratic society and protected as a “fundamental freedom” in Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Yet, in both countries, free expression is being used paradoxically to justify censorship. A disturbing recent example is the enactment of Texas House Bill 3979: “An Act relating to the social studies curriculum in public schools.”