School Sued For Firing Teacher Aide Over Tarot Card Discussion Outside Class

The following week Carter brought a tarot deck his wife owned to the school and engaged in a five-to-ten minute conversation regarding the artwork with the same student, the release said. This happened after the conclusion of the school day, but while they were still on school property.

According to the complaint filed, Carter was called into the office at Chesterton Middle School where he met with administrators from the school, Duneland School Corp. and the Duneland District Director of Porter County Education Services, Lisa Flynn. He was told there had been a report of him showing a student tarot cards, which one person in the room noted were considered an “occult” item.

The complaint says Carter told them he doesn’t know how to “read” the cards or use them for “occult” purposes. It says he told them he was interested in the artwork and that was what he was discussing with the student.

He was sent home from the meeting with pay, but later that day received a phone call saying he had been terminated from his position, the complaint says.

The release said PCES cites the reason for Carter’s dismissal as “going beyond his duties and … talking to the student outside of school hours” — even though he was an assistant for an after-school club. It adds that Carter said his conversation with the student was regarding the tarot card artwork only and that discussions of art are matters of general concern.

“School administrators shouldn’t need to be reminded that teachers have a right to speak to their students,” said Kenneth J. Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, in the release. “As the Supreme Court has ruled, students don’t surrender constitutional rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate — and neither do teachers.”

The lawsuit asks the court to order Carter’s immediate reinstatement, in addition to back pay and legal fees, the release said. Need a Tarot Reading? Click Here