Additional proof Dr. Dan Bittman, Board Chair Holly Thompson, are authoritarians

From the moment I first heard about ISD 728's attempt to intimidate pro-parent school board members John Anderson and Mindy Freiberg, I've been disheartened by the School Board's and the Superintendents' disdain for the Constitution. Specifically, I'm disheartened by the School Board's and the Superintendent's disdain for the First Amendment.

Dr. John Palmer, who wrote this well-researched article, sent me this link to highlight the fact that ISD 728's disdain for the First Amendment isn't new to this year. On Nov. 19, 2021, the Upper Midwest Law Center sent a cease-and-desist letter to the ISD 728 School Board.

The letter opens by saying "We represent Maria Isabel Harju, Cassandra Bonine, and Sarah Ronchak, who are residents and taxpayers of ISD 728 (the District). Simply put, 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—a topic essential to the Board’s fundamental purpose of keeping students safe. It further violated Ms. Harju and Ms. Bonine’s First Amendment rights when it banned them from School Board meetings for a year just to shut down their speech, even though they committed no crime, or anything coming close to justifying a trespass notice."

Action Demanded

I therefore write to demand that ISD 728 immediately (1) rescind the trespass notices provided to Ms. Harju and Ms. Bonine, and (2) cease and desist from its content and viewpoint-based discrimination against parents at School Board meetings. If ISD 728 does not formally rescind the trespass notices and commit in writing to stopping its unconstitutional censorship at School Board meetings by November 26, 2021, our clients have authorized us to bring a lawsuit against the District in federal court to gain its compliance with the law.

Here's hoping that other citizens whose civil rights have been violated by the government, whether it's by school boards, city councils or other parts of the government, start filing litigation against the appropriate part of government. I don't want this to turn into a battle of lawfare vs. lawfare. I'm merely saying that litigation should be filed when a citizen's rights have clearly been violated.

The Law

The District cannot ban speakers from speaking their viewpoint about important topics of a political nature at public forum during School Board meetings. Marshall v. Amuso, No. 21-4336, 2021 WL 5359020, at *5 (E.D. Pa. Nov. 17, 2021). The District also cannot ban speech germane to the purpose of a forum based on either content or viewpoint. See id.

The citizens

Nonetheless, ISD 728 banned parents from speaking about the District’s failure to deal with alleged sexual assault within District schools at the November 8, 2021 Board Meeting based on Policy 206’s prohibition on speech about “data privacy concerns,” including “preliminary allegations, or [speech] which may be potentially libelous or slanderous in nature."

ISD 728 specifically banned Cassandra Bonine and Sarah Ronchak from speaking about the District’s failure to segregate alleged assaulters from their alleged victims to prevent potential recurrence of violence in school. The District also specifically banned Ms. Ronchak from speaking about past physical assaults on her own children, including a March 2021 assault on her special needs son, who wanted to tell his story to the Board as well.

The District’s prohibition in Policy 206 against speaking about issues which might invoke "data privacy concerns" or "potentially libelous or slanderous" statements is a prior restraint on speech that also creates too much discretion for the District to regulate speech just because the speech makes the Board uncomfortable. This kind of regulation is a classic First Amendment violation.

This is worth deep-diving into:

The fact that the School Board left the CRT/Social Justice instruction in indicates that the ISD 728 School Board intends on taking this path. If they didn't plan this, they would've eliminated it from the presentation.

Take the time to read the entire letter from the UMLC to the ISD 728 School Board. It's well worth the time investment.

Finally, thanks should be given to State Rep. Walter Hudson for his videotaping of that portion of the meeting.