Minnesota School Board vs. the parents

Apparently, the Zimmerman School Board (ISD728) needs to be taught a Constitution lesson. According to the article, "A Minnesota school district banned parents and residents from school grounds for one year after they complained about an alleged sexual abuser in the building with their children." Cassandra Bonine, a parent of a student in the district, "was able to exchange words with Zimmerman High School Principal Marco Voce outside the room where the meeting was being held. Bonine 'asked him [Voce] if he had children,' she recalled to the Daily Mail. 'What if it were your daughters? How would you feel in this situation?' she inquired."

In response, she said she got a knock on her door a few days later as police handed her a trespass notification that bans her from the district office and Zimmerman Middle/High School.

"This trespass notice is given due to your verbal altercation with Principal Marco Voce, which you instigated, was witnessed by others and was acknowledged on social media," the notice reads.

The notice is so restrictive that Bonine isn’t even allowed to pick her child up from class.

The text of the First Amendment says this:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

ISD728 is attempting to enforce a law that isn't enforceable. Clearly, the First Amendment empowers this parent to address the ISD728 school board about school policies that might negatively affect her child. Bonine and Maria Isabel Harju, a resident, "are now represented by the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) and are prepared to take legal action against the district." When I say against the district, I mean against these 2:

The UMLC has issued this letter to the School District powers-that-be. In the letter, the UMLC state:

Forcing a parent out of School Board meetings and even from visiting her daughter’s school because of an emotional discussion with the principal is an obscene abuse of power.

"The District trampled on its residents and taxpayers' First Amendment rights when it prohibited our clients from discussing the School Board’s failure to address sexual assault in its classrooms," the letter reads.

"The School District has until November 26, 2021 to rescind the trespass notices and confirm in writing that it allows public comment on the District’s treatment of sexual assault allegations on its campuses," the letter concludes. "Absent this action, our clients have authorized us to bring a federal lawsuit and seek a temporary restraining order to gain the District’s immediate compliance."

The federal courts are the exact right place to file this lawsuit because it would deal with the US Constitution's Bill of Rights. The superintendent and principal (Bittman and Voce) acted in a ham-handed way with regard to the parents' questions about the alleged sexual abuser. Bittman and Voce had a responsibility to protect students. Thus far, they've failed.