Two years ago, Bradford resident Rachel Carr lost her job because of a Facebook post.
After a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court decision in her favor on Tuesday, she will be returning to work at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
“After two years battling with PennDOT, we finally received the justice Mrs. Carr deserves,” her attorney, Kyle B. Milliron of Duke Center, said Wednesday.
He added the court upheld her right to free speech for “criticizing local school bus drivers in a series of off-duty Facebook posts.”
The court’s opinion, penned by Judge Kevin Brobson, gives some background in the case.
In May 2016, Carr was in a probationary period as a roadway programs technician with PennDOT. She was annoyed with the perceived poor driving of a school bus driver she encountered, and vented her frustration on social media.
From the comfort of her home, on her own time, she posted on Facebook in a group called “Creeps for Peeps.” She commented that she had been run off the road by bad school bus drivers, and added, “I don’t give a flying s— about those babies and I will gladly smash into a school bus,” according to court records.
Others commented on her post, and she responded several times. Someone took a screenshot of the conversation and sent it to her employer, PennDOT. Carr was fired in June 2016 for “inappropriate behavior.”
Milliron filed an appeal on her behalf to the state Civil Service Commission, arguing her firing was inappropriate, as she was exercising her right to free speech. The commission ruled against her in August 2017, saying her “disparaging remarks” brought “disrepute” to PennDOT and its mission of public safety, and “raised issues of trust.”
Milliron appealed that decision to the state’s Commonwealth Court, which ruled in Carr’s favor on Tuesday.
In his opinion, Brobson wrote that the court had to consider whether Carr spoke on a matter of a public concern, which would be protected speech. While the commission ruled against Carr on that matter, Brobson said it was incorrect in doing so. “The commission judged Carr on the public’s reaction to her post, as opposed to the substance of the speech itself.”
Quoting a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brobson said, “The inappropriate or controversial character of a statement is irrelevant to the question whether it deals with a matter of public concern.”
The judge noted, “Here, Carr’s speech touched on the safety of schoolchildren and the traveling public,” but called the manner in which she expressed her concerns “abhorrent.”
He continued, saying PennDOT’s and the commission’s characterization of Carr as a person “capable of violent behavior” was a “gross extrapolation of the content of Carr’s comments.”
Brobson said her comments were a “verbal manifestation of her frustrations” in having to make evasive maneuvers in traffic to avoid the dangerous driving habits of a school bus driver, the opinion stated.
PennDOT showed no concrete evidence of tangible harm from her comments, the opinion stated. “We conclude that the department’s generalized interest in the safety of the traveling public does not outweigh Carr’s specific interest in commenting on the safety of a particular bus driver,” Brobson wrote.
The case was sent to the Civil Service Commission with direction to reinstate her and “exercise its discretion” regarding payment of salary or lost wages. A section of her lawsuit that alleged violation of her free speech rights remains pending before Commonwealth Court.
A PennDOT spokesman declined comment to the Associated Press on what he called a personnel matter. Asked if there were plans to appeal, he said the opinion was under legal evaluation.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
