Brave Ohio Teacher One of Many to Claim Janus rights
Jade Thompson has long fought the Ohio Education Association’s radical agenda for many reasons, by being a nonmember. Now she is finally able to exercise her Foundation-won Janus rights. Michael Kelly has the story in the Marietta Times.
Mrs. Thompson has recounted her story to CEAFU supporters at a previous annual convention, citing instances where union officials had used forced dues to pay for ads against her husband, a public official.
Jade Thompson, a Spanish language teacher at Marietta High School and the wife of Ohio Rep. Andy Thompson, R-Marietta, filed the lawsuit only hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus vs. AFSCME. The high court found that withholding dues – termed “agency fees” – from non-members by the union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was a violation of the First Amendment rights of the employee, Mark Janus, who works for the state of Illinois and objected to being associated with many of the political and social positions taken by the union.