LOU ANN Merkle taught art at a middle school in Upper Dublin School District in suburban Philadelphia. She had been a proponent of raising multicultural awareness in the district. For example, at a May 1996 public meeting of the school board, she had spoken in support of a parent's request that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn be removed from the district's required reading list because of its offensive language with respect to African Americans. Subsequently, Supt. Clair Brown acceded to this request. At the start of the 1996-97 school year, Margaret Thomas took over as the principal of Merkle's middle school. Shortly thereafter, she mentioned to Merkle that she had attended the May 1996 board meeting and considered it a mistake for Merkle to publicly challenge the district policy.1 On 27 August 1997, prior to the start of the next school year, Merkle and another art teacher were cleaning out the school's art supplies closet. They apparently decided that some of the items in the closet were no longer useful and could be donated to a local community center serving underprivileged children. These items included two cartons containing a total of 144 unopened boxes of Crayola Crayons. Merkle was under the impression that the crayons were the result of a gross over- order about eight years before. Her colleague had put repeated announcements about the crayons in the school's daily bulletin, but no teacher had requested them. The next day, Merkle carried the items to her car. Thomas asked Merkle what she was doing, and Merkle explained that she and the other art teacher had concluded that these materials weren't useful in the curriculum, that they intended to donate them to the community center, and that they had similarly done so in the past. When Thomas asked her if she had authorization for the donation, Merkle responded that she did not and asked the principal what she would suggest. Thomas replied that she would call the district's business manager, and in the meantime, she directed Merkle to place the materials back in the school, which Merkle promptly did. Later that day, Thomas called the business manager, who informed her that, although there was no formal policy, in his view the proper procedure was to compile and submit a list of the items for donation to the school board for approval. She also called Supt. Brown, who, after consulting with the district's attorney, instructed Thomas to notify the Upper Dublin police department. Brown personally called his friend, the chief of police, explaining that he wanted criminal filed if sufficient evidence existed. The chief suggested that this was an internal district matter, but Brown insisted. The next day a detective met with Thomas, describing the incident and explaining that the superintendent wanted charges filed. Based solely on Thomas' information, the detective swore out an affidavit of probable cause for Merkle's arrest. Later the same day, at a meeting with Merkle and her union representative, Supt. Brown notified Merkle that she would be suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation. On September 2, the detective arrested Merkle and charged her with theft. After her arrest, the district suspended Merkle, and Supt. Brown recommended to the board in writing that she be dismissed on the ground of immorality. After the preliminary hearing on October 6, where Merkle was bound over for trial, the incident received considerable attention in the local newspaper. In response to a school board meeting at which approximately 200 residents protested Merkle's suspension and prosecution, the district issued a press release explaining that Merkle had been observed taking art supplies from the middle school, that the police department had filed a criminal complaint charging her with theft and receiving stolen property, that the local magistrate had found a prima facie case on these charges, and that a trial date was being scheduled. …