Parents from all walks of life around the US are outraged and the new CRT trend that Democrats have been pushing into public schools despite public outrage. Many Democrats and news outlets have seen fit to discredit parents’ concerns claiming that outrage over CRT is fake and overblown but refuse to mention the parents fighting against it.
Like the Four taxpayers in Pennsylvania that have decided enough is enough after footing the bill for a school board attorney who told them that the school system could limit their First Amendment rights.
The taxpayers filed a free-speech lawsuit in federal court that could set a precedent for invalidating policies that shield both school administrators and elected officials from public criticism.
“Our lawsuit seeks case precedent to establish that citizens cannot be censored or intimidated by government officials for exercising their First Amendment rights at a school board meeting,” Simon Campbell, a former member of the Pennsbury School Board, explained.
In their lawsuit, Campbell and three other taxpayers whose children are or were enrolled in Bucks County’s Pennsbury School District ask the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to strike down school board policies used to “censor” citizens who dissent.
The Institute for Free Speech, a Washington-based nonprofit law firm, represents the four plaintiffs. Their suit names Pennsbury School Board officers and other members as well as the board’s lawyers and current and former district officials.
Michael Clarke, an attorney for the Pennsbury School District who is among the defendants, is on record informing parents and other residents that they “don’t have First Amendment rights” during the “public comment” section of a school board meeting, according to the suit filed Oct. 1.
The lawsuit quotes Clarke at some length arguing that the First Amendment does not protect speech that violates what he describes as “reasonable guidelines.”
These guidelines could be extended to include comments that label government officials as “criminal” or “incompetent,” Clarke said during a Dec. 17 board meeting, one of several over the past year that figure in the litigation.”
No parent should be silenced when it comes to the education and welfare of their own children. Personally, I find it outrageous that the same taxpayers who pay to keep those same schools in operation are the ones being told that their American rights don’t matter during school board meetings.
