The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit Thursday on behalf of a Chesterton teachers aide who said he was fired earlier this year after showing a tarot card deck to a student after school.
Dan Carter, 38, of Valparaiso, told the Post-Tribune in May he was fired four days after showing a pack of his wife’s tarot cards to an eighth-grade student.
The girl brought a pack into an after school club one day, he said. About a week later, he ran into her again, then jogged to his car and brought back one of his wife’s packs. They chatted about the art nouveau style for 5-10 minutes, he said.
The lawsuit says Porter County Education Services violated Carter’s free speech rights and is asking for him to get his job back with back pay and legal fees covered.
“School administrators shouldn’t need to be reminded that teachers have a right to speak to their students,” ACLU of Indiana’s Legal Director Kenneth J. Falk said. “As the Supreme Court has ruled, students don’t surrender constitutional rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate — and neither do teachers.”
Representatives from Duneland or PCES were not immediately available for comment.
Carter was a special education aide for Porter County Education Services between 2012-15 and 2017-21, according to the suit. At the time, he worked at Chesterton Middle School and volunteered for both the Table Top Club Games Club and the Acceptance Club.
PCES, a special education cooperative, said Carter was fired for “going beyond his duties and … talking to the student outside of school hours,” according to the ACLU. But, Carter said that was part of his job as an assistant in the after-school club the girl attended.
