Fired for Criticizing Poor Conditions in Grade School: High School Coach (Former NFL Player) Seeks to End Immunity for Impunity

After playing in the NFL for eight years, Gerald Sensabaugh worked as a high school coach for David Crockett High School. His first year went well. In his second season, he toured elementary schools and said he was “shocked at the poor condition of the school.”

When Sensabaugh posted about it on Facebook, his boss, district director Kimber Halliburton, texted him saying he didn’t have all the facts and asked him to take it down, citing photos of schoolchildren he’d included.

Two days later, Sensabaugh posted about how he thought it was wrong for the district to use unpaid prison labor on campus while kids were attending school.

Again Halliburton and others texted Sensabaugh and tried to both threaten and cajole him into not making future posts, Sensabaugh said.

Sensabaugh was fired—but he’s not going quietly. He is asking the Supreme Court to revisit its “qualified immunity” standard for public officials.

That doctrine was created by the Supreme Court in the 1967 case Pierson v. Ray. It says that when a public official violates someone’s constitutional rights— here, Sensabaugh is claiming he was fired for First Amendment speech— the official isn’t personally liable unless he or she clearly knew that they were violating a right.

Legal scholars believe it gives too many public officials a free pass for really bad behavior—for example, misconduct cases involving police who engage in theft and violence in their official capacity.

Sensabaugh’s attorney makes the argument that “qualified immunity entitlement continues to grow unbridled and acts as a steel barrier protecting virtually every public official sued in their individual capacity.” If Sensabaugh wins, public officials will hopefully be deterred from depriving citizens of their rights.