HUNTINGTON — A former Cabell County teacher's lawsuit that was filed after she was fired for racially charged Twitter posts on her personal account five years ago has been dismissed by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers wrote that Mary Durstein's claims against former county superintendent, Todd Alexander, must be dismissed because the school system did not violate her First Amendment rights.
"Durstein fails to establish that this law — which the state Superintendent points out has been on the books since 1908—has had, or is likely to have, a substantial chilling effect on any speech, except perhaps her own," Chambers wrote in the order. "Although it is conceivable that § 18A-3-6 may chill some First Amendment speech, the chilling effect is not so substantial to allow for a facial challenge."
The Cabell County Board of Education filed a motion to dismiss in 2019 arguing that her First Amendment claims failed as a matter of law and that she failed to state a claim.
Durstein's employment was terminated in 2017. She was a world history teacher at Huntington High School.
Durstein was summoned to the principal's office Jan. 9, 2017, where Alexander showed her several of the posts she'd made on Twitter over the last 18 months and told her she needed to shut down her Twitter account immediately, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
After Durstein deactivated her Twitter account, Alexander told her she was not allowed to speak to the media and put her on administrative leave with pay, according to the suit.
Durstein said some of the remarks about her attributed by news reports to the superintendent and to the director of communications were harsh enough that any reasonable person in her circumstances would feel compelled to publicly respond to protect reputation and esteem.
But Durstein, a former journalist, complied with Alexander's demand and did not speak to any news organizations about the matter, according to the suit.
On Jan. 24, 2017, Durstein received a letter that her suspension was continuing without pay, according to the suit. Durstein's employment was officially terminated on March 6, 2017, during a board meeting. Durstein appealed the termination to the West Virginia Education and State Grievance Board, but the board upheld her termination.
Durstein had been on Twitter since 2008 and had accumulated between 20 and 30 followers who shared her same views, according to the suit. Durstein claimed she posted many tweets and re-tweets involving politics. She claimed all of her tweets were done on her own time and were done on electronics that she personally owned.
Durstein claimed the school board had a history of making teachers delete their personal social media accounts for expressing views that were not the same as theirs.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 3:19-cv-00029
