Courtesy of our fair State's highest court, in a concurrence:
"I agree that the school district, as plaintiff's employer, could reasonably be interested in knowing the things that defendants told it. Like any other employer, a school district can legitimately consider facts that bear on its employee's character or judgment. It might think that a man who cheated on his pregnant wife set a poor example for the students; it could certainly conclude that plaintiff acted unprofessionally in choosing for his romantic partner a fellow employee whose child was in his class; and it might be distressed to know of another fact mentioned in defendants' communications—that the resume plaintiff had submitted to the school district failed to mention a previous employment that had 'terminated abruptly.'”
"I agree that the school district, as plaintiff's employer, could reasonably be interested in knowing the things that defendants told it. Like any other employer, a school district can legitimately consider facts that bear on its employee's character or judgment. It might think that a man who cheated on his pregnant wife set a poor example for the students; it could certainly conclude that plaintiff acted unprofessionally in choosing for his romantic partner a fellow employee whose child was in his class; and it might be distressed to know of another fact mentioned in defendants' communications—that the resume plaintiff had submitted to the school district failed to mention a previous employment that had 'terminated abruptly.'”