An appeals court Friday sided with a now-retired Duval County math teacher who argued his speech rights were violated when he was disciplined for personal Facebook posts. A three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal overturned a decision by the Duval County School Board to suspend Thomas Caggiano without pay for three days and to issue a reprimand.
It also ruled that Caggiano’s pay should be reinstated from the time he was suspended. The school board decision came after a recommended order by Administrative Law Judge Robert Telfer. The case stemmed from a series of Facebook posts, with the decision involving two reposts by Caggiano of derogatory material about 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
Telfair said material in the reposts concerned “violence and abuse of a child, as well as discriminatory and degrading views of women being abused and raped,” according to Friday’s opinion. But the appeals court said “the disciplinary charges involve only Caggiano’s two Facebook posts made from his own personal computer, which were both reposts of third-party content that was derogatory of a candidate in the 2020 presidential election, Senator Bernie Sanders.”
One of the repots read: “My son is taking part in a social experiment. He has to wear a Bernie 2020 t-shirt for 2 weeks and see how people react. So far he’s been spit on, punched and had a bottle thrown at him! I’m curious to see what happens when he goes outside.”
A post authored by Caggiano read: “Dumb ass liberals are now organizing protest against the killing of the Iranian general (terrorist) who was responsible for many attacks against the USA. Amazing how TRUMP derangement syndrome can cause democraps, and the main stream media, to support our enemies.”
A repost from another individual appears to be a screen grab from a Fox News segment. It states at the top, “MAN AND WOMAN,” and goes on to read: “A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man—she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously. . .” The screen grab attributes this quote to Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont, from the 1970s, though the copy used in the court filing was unclear. Caggiano’s handwritten
notes next to the exhibit read “Bernie said this!” (He did, in a 1972 article unearthed by Mother Jones, but the lines quoted by Caggiano were a set up in the article in which Sanders discusses gender roles. Sanders recanted the article in 2015.)
The opinion, written by Judge Scott Makar and joined by Judges Harvey Jay and Adrian Soud, rejected the notion that Caggiano, who taught at Sandalwood High School, was encouraging violence or degrading women. “At best, the reposts demonstrated that Caggiano disliked Senator Sanders (for his use of sexist language) and was amused by sophomoric humor (that in no way promoted violence),” the opinion said. “The posts occurred outside of the school, on Caggiano’s own time and computer, and amounted to little more than harmless political chitchat; they collectively amounted to the proverbial hill of beans.”
–FlaglerLive and News Service of Florida
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