Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

Slander by co-worker

I am a teacher and was told by a few students that another colleague was making untrue statements about my ethics i.e. I wrote a student's final for this teacher's class.

I was never asked about it, and had I been this could have been resolved. However, I thought it might be children just blowing things out of proportion. However, when I mentioned it to a fellow teacher, she also told me that this same person had said the same thing to her.

I feel that this brings my ethics into question. My superiors refuse to deal with this issue. I have been led to believe that I am rocking the boat. I wondered what my choices are.


Asked on 2/17/04, 2:28 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Andrew Solomon Law Office of Andrew A. Solomon

Re: Slander by co-worker

If you want to pursue this, your first step should be to contact the teacher's union (assuming there is one) and ask their advice. Litigation over this type of incident is likely to be counter-productive and expensive and will just highlight the accusations. Further, there is not much you can do if the administration is unwilling to take any action. On the other hand, if you were to lose your job over such a false accusation, then clearly, your options will be different. Hopefully it won't come to that.

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Answered on 2/17/04, 3:33 pm

Re: Slander by co-worker

If you don't want to walk away from this, you might have an atty write a letter to the school to advise them that since they refused to respond to your request and address this issue of one of their teachers making slanderous statements, you sought counsel, and that you don't want to make a larger issue of this than necessary, BUT their refusal to date to address leaves you with 1 option, a slander suit.

If the statements are 'published' (told to others) and it goes to your profession, it is 'slander per se', and damages are assumed, but to be determined - without knowing enough, I suspect this is a slander per se situation.

Hopefully this will get them off their a__es, and force them to address this issue. You do not want this becomming an issue a year or two from now.

Good luck.

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Answered on 2/17/04, 6:07 pm


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