Teacher punished for advising students of their 5th Amendment rights

Daily News Article   —   Posted on May 31, 2013

(Jessica Chasmar, The Washington Times) – An Illinois high school teacher was docked a day’s pay and issued a formal reprimand after he advised students about their Fifth Amendment rights before answering a school-mandated survey about at-risk behavior, Fox News reports.

“I advised my students that they had a Fifth Amendment right not incriminate themselves,” John Dryden, a social studies teacher at Batavia High School, told The Kane County Chronicle on Tuesday. “It was not my intention for them not to take the survey.”

Several questions on the 34-page survey included deeply personal questions about past drug, tobacco and alcohol usage.

The school’s superintendent, Jack Barshinger, said the teacher broke the rules. “I have the authority to reprimand someone,” Barshinger said. “Any discipline of any employee is based on not a single incident but a pattern of behavior.”

John Dryden

Dryden appealed Barshinger’s action to the school board. Dryden, who has taught at the high school for 20 years, had said he advised his students, before they filled out the survey, that they had a Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves.

Barshinger said students can’t incriminate themselves.  “The information is protected by the Illinois and federal student records act,” he said. “We won’t give it to law enforcement. That was never the intent.”

“We wanted to be able to provide interactions to students who needed it,” Barshinger said.

About a week before the BHS Social-Emotional Survey was administered, parents were given the opportunity to tell the district whether they didn’t want their children taking the survey, Barshinger said. [Article does not state if parents knew their teens’ names were to be pre-printed on the survey.]

Barshinger said students’ names were put on the surveys to help identify those students who need help. All high school students were given a 34-question survey April 18 during their third-block classes that would evaluate their social-emotional perceptions.

“The issue before the board was whether one employee had the right to mischaracterize the efforts of teachers, counselors, social workers and others and tell students in effect that the adults are not here to help but they are trying to get you to incriminate yourself,” he said in a statement after a closed session.

Nearly 100 students, parents and teachers turned out at the meeting to rally behind Mr. Dryden. A Facebook petition generated nearly 6,000 signatures, Fox News reports.

“These kids need to know that the U.S. Constitution is there for them,” Batavia 2nd Ward Alderman Alan Wolff told school board members, The Chronicle reports.

This article is adapted from two news reports: from The Washington Times and the Kane County Chronicle.  Reprinted here for educational purposes only.  May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.