A teacher who was transferred two years ago from her post at an Evanston, Ill., school after she created a display mocking the No Child Left Behind Act has reached a settlement with the school district.
Vickie Proctor said she was protesting the federal law when she hung a skeleton in the teachers’ lounge with a sign that suggested the tests had killed it. Another sign said, “I am a Texas scholar, this is an oxyMoron.”
Several other teachers at the K-8 M.L. King Junior Experimental Lab School complained that the display, with the skeleton dressed in a Michael Jordan basketball jersey, resembled a lynching.
Ms. Proctor sued in federal court in Chicago last year, contending that her First Amendment right to free speech had been violated.
Officials with the 7,000-student Evanston/ Skokie Elementary School District 65 announced last week that they would settle the lawsuit brought by Ms. Proctor in order to avoid potentially significant legal fees. Ms. Proctor will receive $250,000 and a letter “acknowledging her service to the district for many years,” a press release said.
