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A list of nine books has started a bitter battle in a Utah school district over pornography and censorship and who can control what students read.

The latest culture confrontation began about a month ago, when a mom first emailed administrators at Canyons School District about the titles that she found concerning. She had heard about them on social media and discovered they were in the high school libraries in her districts suburbs at the south end of Salt Lake County.

There are many more but it is exhausting, mentally, watching and reviewing these books content, she wrote in a letter that has since been shared widely online by conservative groups.

Most of the books she listed focus on race and the LGBTQ community, including The Bluest Eye by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison and Gender Queer, a graphic novel about the authors journey of self-identity that has been at the center of the growing movement over banning books in school districts across the country.

The mom copied on her email a member of Utah Parents United, the group that has led efforts against masking in schools and in favor of dropping a social-emotional learning program, also at Canyons, because it linked to a site about sex.

And from there, debate over the books erupted.

Canyons spokesman Jeff Haney said the district has received hundreds of emails about the books and from parents who want to add more to the list for being too explicit. Utah Parents United has also since released an hourlong video encouraging its members to call their local police departments when they come across materials like this at their school libraries.

Pushing back against them is a growing list of advocates. Librarians and civil rights attorneys who support keeping the books on library shelves say this conflict is about limiting what viewpoints students can seek out on their own with a library card, especially diverse viewpoints from historically marginalized groups. None of the titles, they stress, are required reading.

Richard Price, an associate professor of political science at Weber State who tracks censorship in school districts, said: If you dont want to look at it, then you dont have to check it out. But I fear what this group is trying to do is forbid all people from reading them. Theyre trying to parent for all parents.

In response to the crossfire, the district has decided to temporarily pull the original nine titles from library shelves until it can further review them and its own policy for handling challenges.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Four of nine books that have been removed from schools in the Canyons School District and placed under review, Nov. 23, 2021. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin.

UNDER REVIEW

The books under review in the Canyons School District are:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, about an 11-year-old Black girl growing up in Ohio that includes scenes about racism and molestation.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, which has drawn particular attention for its cartoon drawing of oral sex, but it also covers the confusion around young crushes and being yourself in society.

Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin, a nonfiction book based on interviews with six transgender and gender neutral young adults.

l8r, g8r by Lauren Myracle, the third book in a series written in instant messages about three friends navigating high school. Parents have protested this novel because it includes drug use and an inappropriately flirtatious teacher.

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, about a young Mexican American boy examining what it means to be Brown in this country.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which is the only traditionally classic novel on the list and tells the story of a professors pedophiliac relationship with a 12-year-old girl.

Mondays Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson, which is a fictional story about a Black girl who goes missing and whose disappearance is dismissed as just another runaway. The book delves into racism, mental illness, friendship and consent, received the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

The Opposite of Innocent by Sonya Sones, a story about a teenage girl with a crush on one of her parents male friends.

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Prez, about the relationship between a young Mexican American girl and a Black teenage boy in 1930s Texas.

The mom stood at the podium and turned to page 200 in the book. She began to read aloud.

The excerpt started with one character telling another: Get your hand off my butt. From there, it gets more explicit, detailing an older cousin molesting a younger boy.

The mom, Jessica Anderson, told the school board for Canyons District that she found the book at Alta High School in Sandy. This book should have never been available to any student, she added during the board meeting on Nov. 8.

One board member urged her to stop reading. Another, Mont Millerberg, shook his head and thanked Anderson for bringing it to their attention. He added: My question is not if those should be taken out or not thats intuitive. My question is, How the hell did they get in there in the first place?

Anderson was reading from a book, All Boys Arent Blue by LGBTQ activist George M. Johnson, which she and others with Utah Parents United are calling to be added to the list of titles to be pulled. They say every book in the district needs to be reviewed for sexual content.

The current policies and practices are not working, Anderson said.

Many of the books in Canyons School Districts libraries are not directly reviewed by school librarians who place them on the shelves. Some are given to the district for free, for instance, and placed in the collection without any more formal process. Thats typical in most schools.

But the districts current written policy, approved mostly recently in May 2020, only allows someone with a direct tie to a school a student who attends there, a parent of a child who attends there, or an employee who works there to raise concerns about a book in that specific schools library. The mom who sent the first email has students in middle and elementary school in Canyons; the books she raised alarms about are in four high schools in the district: Alta, Brighton, Corner Canyon and Jordan.

Haney said if someone objecting to a book doesnt fit the criteria in the policy, then the districts board is instructed to respond with silence and ignore the complaint.

The board, which leans conservative and represents a more right-learning area of the county, has decided that approach doesnt work, after hearing Anderson read the explicit paragraphs. It is now redrafting the policy to be broader and allow for anyone to bring up concerns that will be heard by the full board.

Haney said a committee has already met twice to work on revisions. A new draft is expected to come before the board next week at its regular Tuesday meeting.

During that discussion, a staff member talked about how the initial changes would create a process for any patron to raise concerns about a book and for librarians to more carefully comb through books coming in, based on criteria around age-appropriateness.

Those who oppose removing the books note that the policy does still state that titles are supposed to remain in use during the challenge process until a committee can read them and decide if they are appropriate for students.

They argue that Canyons violated that by taking the books away from students before that plays out. The ACLU of Utah has called it a reminder [that] constitutional protections cannot be simply ignored.

A joint statement from the Utah Educational Library Media Association, Utah Library Association and Utah Library Media Supervisors said due process must be followed to protect the First Amendment and all students rights to access diverse literature.

The states largest teachers union has joined them, as has the National Coalition Against Censorship. Several other national groups are signing on, too, including the Authors Guild, the National Council of Teachers of English and PEN America. Each has written a letter to Canyons District, urging that the books be returned.

Even Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox cautioned against a knee-jerk reaction during his November news conference.

Im not saying every book should be in every classroom, the governor said. But lets be thoughtful about it. Lets take a step back, take a deep breath and make sure that were not doing something well regret. Any student of history knows that banning books never ends up well.

State Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, is considering running a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would require all public K-12 school districts and charters to follow a set process to review books under challenge before removing them from libraries.

Without set criteria, she and others worry that schools and school districts could easily throw out any material considered controversial by one parent; that one obscenity or one sex scene taken out of context could get a book tossed.

Libraries aim to expand readers perspectives, including providing books on subjects outside their comfort zones, and an interested patron should be able to access such titles, book defenders say.

When people can learn these things and read books, you can be so much kinder and compassionate and see outside of your bubble, said Wanda Mae Huffaker, a librarian with the Salt Lake County library system.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake County Library System Librarian Wanda Mae Huffaker, Nov. 23, 2021.

Huffaker has studied intellectual freedom and defended books against being censored in Utah schools. When Davis School District pulled the book In Our Mothers House, about lesbian moms, from its shelves in 2012, she helped get it returned. And the district was required to pay out legal fees and agree in a settlement to never remove a book again based solely on its LGBTQ content.

Huffaker also notes that curriculum what students must learn in the classroom is different and separate from content in libraries, and she asserts they cannot be held to the same standards.

The book that is causing the most division on the list of nine titles in Canyons School District is Gender Queer considered the top banned book in the country right now.

Huffaker says its currently available in Salt Lake Countys public libraries, where its also been challenged but remains on shelves.

When I read that one, I thought I dont understand what that feels like because Ive never been there, she said. And it made me appreciate so much and to relate to that. It opened my eyes. Thats what literature does.

Huffaker, who is 64, said she recalls a little girl who frequently came into the Tyler Branch in Midvale where she works. One day, the librarian asked her how many brothers and sisters she had. The girl struggled.

She said she had two brothers, two sisters and one sibling that was both a boy and a girl. Huffaker said that experience, shortly before reading Gender Queer, also opened her eyes. And now she asks a more gender neutral question about siblings.

She worries what message removing the book sends to students like that or students who are LGBTQ and looking for a book that shows their experience. She believes those opposed to it are turning only to the controversial pages of the graphic novel, which does include some graphic depictions, and not considering the book as a whole.

Troy Williams, executive director for Equality Utah, added: This is about censorship. And it is immoral to try to deprive minority students in Utah from their culture and the voices that reflect their lives.

After the book was banned in Texas, author Maia Kobabe told The Texas Tribune: I also want to have the best interest of young people at heart. There are queer youth at every high school and those students, thats [who] Im thinking about, is the queer student who is getting left behind.

Utah Parents United, though, insists that the group is not trying to eradicate books about the gay community. They say their target is explicit sexual content. They call it pornography both written and drawn in the form of the cartoons in Gender Queer.

When asked for comment, the group said, this is our statement, and shared tens of images from each of the books on its list, showing excerpts of explicit scenes, pages detailing the use of condoms and lubricants, sexual positions, and one encouraging masturbation. Others were screenshots of rape scenes.

Its just so shocking, said Brooke Stephens, the curriculum director for Utah Parents United. I think Gender Queer needs to get out now.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe is one of nine books that have been removed from schools in the Canyons School District and placed under review, Nov. 23, 2021.

She said the scene in the graphic novel where the main character is forced to perform oral sex on another man is beyond inappropriate for high schoolers, with those as young as 14 years old being able to check it out in Canyons School District.

This isnt about the left or right deciding no Dr. Seuss or no Tom Sawyer, Stephens added. Its not about debatable books. Its about explicit porn.

But Price, the professor studying censorship at Weber State, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, said its not about porn.

The examples of sex in the books on the list, including Gender Queer, arent about titillation, Price said. Theyre about relationship imbalances and manipulation often real experiences from the authors that are meant to show the reader how the situation is wrong and warn them if theyre going through something similar.

Its about figuring our where your boundaries are and drawing them. Thats very healthy, Price said.

Amanda Darrow, the director of youth, family and education at the Utah Pride Center, said thats especially important in a conservative state where it can be difficult to be LGBTQ or talk openly about it.

Emma Houston, who works on diversity issues at the University of Utah, also worries that the targeted books are largely about experiences of race. Of the nine books, six directly address racism.

Its saying that were removing your lived experience. Its saying that individuals who look like you are not valued, said Houston, special assistant to the U.s vice president of equity, diversity and inclusion.

Shes particularly concerned about Toni Morrison novels being removed. Morrison, an award-winning author, wrote about what it means to be Black.

Utah Parents United say they object to The Bluest Eye, though, because of a rape scene; and Stephens points to her four adopted children, who are all Black and attend Davis School District (where there have been severe cases of racism reported) as a way to say that, to her, its not about race.

She says, though, that she believes parents should individually talk about race issues with their children. For instance, she does not support discussion of critical race theory which academics define as the history of race and slavery as a founding principle of America in the classroom. There is no evidence its being taught in K-12 schools in Utah.

But Houston says that should absolutely be allowed in books in the library. And, she added, the rape in The Bluest Eye is obviously brutal, but its a piece that cant be overlooked. Its part of the whole book as much as its part of a system that doesnt help people of color when they experience assault, she said.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is one of nine books that have been removed from schools in the Canyons School District and placed under review, Nov. 23, 2021.

She also worries whats next. Will Asian writers be removed? Hispanic authors? Will students only see one perspective about being white? Houston doesnt support the books being removed, but if they are, she would like to see each book by an author of color replaced by another, to keep a diverse collection in school libraries.

In a statement, thee NAACP of Salt Lake backed the review and said it believes all material should be age-appropriate.

It is not about the titles but the contents within these books that the NAACP is concerned about through these book challenges, said President Jeanetta Williams in a statement. The NAACP would like to see the process play out.

Price said it would be unfair to ignore that the challenges from the books are also largely coming from straight white women, the professor believes. Price noted thats been a trend across the country, where book ban challenges are popping up largely in white suburbs that have been starting to become more diverse. That includes where Canyons School District sits in Salt Lake County.

Utah Parents United is organizing to review books in every district in the state. And Stephens has started a Facebook page where parents can report titles to her that they find concerning. Its everywhere, Stephens said. I dont think people know whats inside these books.

A parent in Washington County School District in Southern Utah sent a list of five titles to administrators there that she took issue with being in elementary schools. Those include Julin is a Mermaid, which is a picture book about a boy who wants to become a mermaid, as well as The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. That books deals with racism and police brutality, and the parent said she objects to the profanities in it.

Washington County School District spokesman Steven Dunham said the district is following a set process to review the books, with a committee that is expected to read all of each one.

He said districts should balance whats age appropriate with providing diverse titles that represent all kids.

I also think its interesting how parents are challenging these books in our libraries, he added. This is the place that they think their children are going to be corrupted. But they are also giving them phones where they can look up anything.

The school board is expected to weigh in on the titles in January.

Haney, the Canyons spokesman, said the district there also cares about making sure titles are representative. He did a search of the library system in the district and found 102 titles with the keyword transgender, 44 with queer and 31 with LGBTQ.

But now some parents are asking for a full catalog of every book so they can review whats available.

Possible solutions are just as debated. Allowing parents to block books on a students account wont stop them from looking at the same titles if their peers check them out, Stephens said.

And putting them in a separate office to check out is othering, Darrow with the Utah Pride Center added. Some students might also not want their parents to know what theyre reading, as it could reveal their identity, Darrow said.

This latest effort to ban books is the broadest and most organized Huffaker has ever seen, she said, and to her, seeing it play out feels like a campaign out of George Orwells 1984.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lily Aguilar, 10, reads in the Children's Section of the Ruth Vine Tyler Library, Nov. 23, 2021.

Here is the original post:
How 9 books started a fight over censorship and pornography in this Utah school district - Salt Lake Tribune

from the fluff-and-nonsense dept

We'd already noted how telecom and media giants are hard at work trying to scuttle the nomination of consumer advocate Gigi Sohn to the FCC. Sohn is not only a genuine reformer, she's broadly popular on both sides of the aisle in telecom and media circles. So companies like AT&T and News Corporation, which enjoyed no limit of ass kissing during the Trump era, are working overtime to come up with some feeble talking points loyal politicians can use to oppose her nomination. It's not going well.

About the best they could come up with was the entirely false claim that Sohn wants to "censor Conservatives." Anybody who actually knows Sohn knows the claim isn't true, and she's historically gone well out of her way to embrace policies that encourage diversity in media and speech, even when she doesn't agree with the speaker. Despite being a nonsense claim, it has been broadly peppered across the right wing echo chamber, including the usual columns at Breitbart, editorials by the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, Tucker Carlson, and elsewhere.

The claim popped up again at last week's nomination hearing before a Senate Judiciary Committee courtesy of Senators Ted Cruz and Dan Sullivan:

"Federal Communications Commission nominee Gigi Sohn faced off against Republican senators at a nomination hearing yesterday, disputing the senators' shaky claims that she would use a post at the FCC to censor conservatives. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) repeated arguments previously made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and The Wall Street Journal editorial board, which mostly boil down to complaints about Sohn's tweets criticizing Fox News and her criticism of Sinclair Broadcast Group."

As we've long noted, the claims that Conservatives are being "censored" in general (either on the internet or on traditional television) aren't remotely true. In fact Conservatives have not only built a massive right wing infotainment universe with a violent disdain for factual reality (OAN, NewsMax, Fox News, Breitbart, Facebook, YouTube, Blaze), they've mastered the art of trolling for outrage engagement, which generally involves saying inflammatory gibberish, then enjoying the added exposure from left-wing outrage retweets and ad-engagement obsessed clickbait coverage. Pretty much the exact opposite of "censorship."

What's usually deemed "censorship" is usually just fairly flimsy and short-lived accountability for spewing false or bigoted nonsense. And while the Trump GOP pretends to be mad at "big tech" for "censorship," what they're actually mad about is the fact that social media belatedly and inconsistently started reining in GOP race-baiting propaganda, a cornerstone of party power in the face of an unfavorable shift in demographics and a sagging electorate. The GOP has zero interest in genuine antitrust reform (see: forty straight years of U.S. history), but the pretense that they do provides handy cover for an agenda that's exclusively self-serving.

The new Trump GOP is currently a party of performative gibberish, entirely untethered from reality, propped up largely thanks to propaganda shoveled into the brains of low-information voters, tricked into rooting against their best self interests via a massive, well-funded coalition of traditional cable and online companies (again, quite the opposite of "censorship"). And outside of perhaps reining in media consolidation and encouraging more competition, there's not a whole lot the FCC can do about it from a policy perspective, given inevitable 1A challenges and a rightward-lurching Supreme Court. Even if Sohn wanted to "censor Conservatives" (which again, she doesn't) she'd find it an impossible task within the confines of the FCC and legal reality.

The great irony in the GOP/News Corp/AT&T alliance's effort to smear Sohn as somebody looking to "censor Conservatives?" Right wing news outlets like Newsmax and AT&T-funded OAN actually support her nomination because she's historically worked to encourage diversity in media viewpoints and healthy competition in media markets. Sohn highlighted as much at the hearing:

"I would say, look at my record. Look at the conservative cable channels that I worked with for years to get them carriage on cable systems when those systems would not carry them. I have long worked with organizations and companies with whom I vigorously disagree on their point of viewfervent Republicans, fervent supporters of the previous presidentand I worked with them to get their views online. I believe that I have been characterized very unfairly as being anti-conservative speech. I think my record says otherwise."

It's kind of hard to smear somebody as a fan of "conservative censorship" when outlets like OAN and Newsmax, which routinely traffic in truly repugnant garbage, say she's always been even-handed when dealing with them. Check out this statement supporting Sohn by OAN President Charles Herring:

"She believes in the First Amendment and the advantages of a strong and open media for the benefit of our democracy. She is one of the most knowledgeable persons I know on FCC issues and has the common sense and desire to work with people on both sides of the aisle."

As usual with the broader Trump GOP, this isn't about policy, it's about money and power. AT&T and News Corporation don't want Sohn appointed because she'd not only break a 2-2 partisan gridlock in voting at the FCC, she actively supports holding telecom and media giants accountable for bad behavior. That's in pretty stark contrast to the last four years of the Trump FCC, which basically involved coddling entrenched telecom and media giants at every conceivable opportunity, even if that required a whole lot of lying and legally dubious behavior.

If you're a Trump-allied GOP lawmaker you can't just come out and say you're opposing Sohn's nomination because you're lodged up AT&T and Rupert Murdoch's ass and the only thing you care about is protecting their revenues so campaign contributions keep flowing. So instead you glom on to the Trump GOP's perpetual victimization complex to not only change the subject (away from the fact you're an enabler of anti-competitive monopolists and have been for decades), but distract and agitate the base with false outrage and victimization porn. Sohn can be approved to the post without GOP support, so in the end most of this is little more than a delay tactic and empty calorie performative gibberish, much like the lion's share of the modern Trump GOP policy platform.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyones attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

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Filed Under: 1st amendment, anti-conservative bias, fcc, gigi sohn, grandstanding, politics, ted cruzCompanies: newsmax, oan

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GOP Claim That Biden FCC Nom Gigi Sohn Wants To 'Censor Conservatives' Is AT&T & Rupert Murdoch Backed Gibberish - Techdirt

In Turkey, as in several countries in the Middle East, audiovisual productions such as movies, soap operas or series must be developed respecting the laws and traditions of their respective territory and all this is supervised by the government of the day. That is why in Turkish dramas you hardly ever see risque scenes and an example of this is the soap opera Unfaithful.

In recent years, one of the countries that has been considered the cradle of successful international soap operas is Turkey. In his different productions, intimate or related scenes are not seen. This is because it is established by the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTUK).

This entity of the Turkish government has the function of ordering that all audiovisual productions follow to the letter the ethical rules suitable for all audiences. These rules are strictly based on traditional values. That is why scenes where alcohol consumption is observed, risque scenes or of that nature are censored.

The protagonist of the telenovela Unfaithful, Cansu Dere He ruled on this type of situation that has become normal in his country due to the fact that there are laws which have been established to be respected.

During her time in Spain, the famous actress gave an interview to some media and was consulted on this issue.

Censorship always limits, in any field, be it your work or your normal life. There is a limitation in our work, obviously. There are rules that we have to comply with by the country in which we are living. It is not very good to have so many limitations, but we have to complyCansu Dere expressed.

But this only, as revealed by the actress, happens with the productions of the state channels, something that does not happen with the pay channels.

Beyond the theme in which the telenovela revolves UnfaithfulWhich is Volkans infidelity towards Asya, the actress pointed out that the messages that can be seen in Turkish productions can help more people to get out of the situation they are in if they are going through a similar case.

There are many women who are experiencing infidelities in their real life. Through my last job (Infidel) a woman who has suffered from infidelity can imagine how she can fight in society and how she can get what she deserves. Asyas fight inspires many women in Turkish society, assured.

In an interview with the journalists to the actress, Cansu YouShe was also asked how she would feel if she made a bawdy scene in a series in Spain, because she is not used to doing this type of production.

Working in Spain, participating in a series would be fantastic for me, it would be another triumph, but I always see the works (productions), I get the script, the story, I value it and I give my answer. I would love to be in Spain working, He sentenced.

Cansu Dere He was born in Ankara on October 14, 1980, so, in 2021. At first, his career was planned to be different, because he studied Archeology at Istanbul University. He studied for two years and, in 2004, his life changed drastically.

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Infiel: what Cansu Dere thinks about censorship in Turkish soap operas - Market Research Telecast

Devin Nunes, the California congressman and close ally of Donald Trump, will be retiring from the US House of Representatives next year to join Trumps new social media venture.

The Republican congressman, who represents a rural California district, announced his retirement from the House on Monday, writing in a letter to constituents that he was leaving his position to pursue a new opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in.

Shortly after, Trump Media & Technology Group announced Nunes would become the companys chief executive in January.

In a statement, Nunes said: The time has come to reopen the internet and allow for the free flow of ideas and expression without censorship.

Nunes, 48, has served as a congressman since 2003. He was a member of the intelligence committee during Donald Trumps first impeachment and emerged as one of Trumps staunchest defenders in the House.

Nunes has long been a critic of major social media companies. The congressman has repeatedly claimed without evidence that platforms have been trying to censor Republicans.

In 2019, he filed a lawsuit against Twitter over mocking tweets from two parody accounts, Devin Nunes Mom and Devin Nunes Cow. In the lawsuit, Nunes claimed he had endured an orchestrated defamation campaign, one that no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life. The suit also accused Twitter of censoring viewpoints with which it disagrees.

The parody accounts pretending to be the congressmans cow and his mother mocked him over revelations that his family had moved its farm to Iowa from California even as he used his agricultural roots as part of his campaign in central California.

Later, the Trump justice department subpoenaed Twitter for information related to a parody account that criticized Nunes, federal court records revealed even though a judge ruled that the representative could not sue the social media company for defamation.

Earlier on Monday, the blank-check company that aims to take Trump Media & Technology Group public acknowledged that two regulatory agencies are scrutinizing the $1.25bn deal.

Digital World Acquisition, which is often referred to by its trading symbol, DWAC, said it was cooperating with the preliminary, fact-finding inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Go here to read the rest:
Republican Devin Nunes to quit Congress and head Trumps social media platform - The Guardian

A federal court order against the Pennsbury School District for curtailing public comments that officials deemed abusive or irrelevant has districts across the region reconsidering how theyll handle heated or hateful speech during school board meetings a regular phenomenon in some communities over the last year.

The order, issued by U.S. District Judge Gene Pratter, came in response to a lawsuit filed Oct. 1 by four residents in the Bucks County district who said their comments were censored, limited, or disrupted by the board, largely as they questioned its equity initiatives.

The First Amendment protections for free speech apply to speaking at public school board meetings, Pratter said in an opinion accompanying her Nov. 17 order, which granted a preliminary injunction against the district but hasnt settled the case.

She agreed that Pennsburys policies prohibiting certain comments including those considered personally directed, offensive, abusive, and irrelevant appeared to be vague and overbroad, and directed the district to stop enforcing them.

Many area school boards have a similar policy in place, modeled after a template recommended by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, and those boards are going to have to suspend it, said Jeffrey Sultanik, a solicitor for multiple Philadelphia-area districts.

While the Pennsbury order applies only to that district, it could be cited in lawsuits against other school boards. And Pennsbury says it plans to appeal which could lead to a decision that would be binding on all school systems within the nine counties of the federal courts Eastern District. In the meantime, Annette Stevenson, a spokesperson for the school boards association, said its model policy was currently under review but declined to comment further.

The Pennsbury school board is proud of its work during its meetings to ensure all children in the district have equal opportunity to an excellent education, and that work will continue, said spokesperson Jen Neill. The district welcomes the input of its stakeholders in a productive, respectful manner as a way to achieve this goal.

Among the residents who brought the lawsuit was Simon Campbell, a former Pennsbury school board member who said that the country was founded by disruptive, disrespectful people. He and fellow plaintiffs were represented by the Institute for Free Speech, which called the order a wakeup for school boards across America. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit is also representing members of the Moms for Liberty group in a similar case against Floridas Brevard County School Board.

Pennsburys board garnered broad attention this summer after a fiery speech by Campbell accusing the board of censorship including calling its president Benito Mussolini went viral. The president, Christine Toy-Dragoni, said she received death and rape threats that escalated with the national attention.

Some thought last months court decision could stoke more antagonism.

It has the potential to make public comment more disrespectful, said Kenneth Roos, another local school district solicitor, though he added that being recorded during meetings hopefully ... is a disincentive to people to behave in an egregious or inappropriate way.

In Central Bucks, school board member Karen Smith saw Pratters order as like putting gasoline on a fire at this point.

At that boards last meeting, some public comments drew outrage including one suggesting ties between Jews and organized crime and calling for a stand against Zionism and communism, and another worrying that transgender students had the right to rape girls in the womens bathroom.

Smith interjected during that latter comment, calling out, Thats enough. But the board president, Dana Hunter, allowed the commenter to continue noting that this is his three minutes.

Smith said her reaction grew out of an accumulation of comments during past meetings targeting transgender people. We dont have that many of these students, but its very difficult for them, she said. The boards policy would have justified ending the comments, she said, but now we cant do anything.

Smith and three other members of the nine-member board released a statement after the meeting condemning the comments. The board meets again with newly elected members on Monday.

Tina Stoll, the school board president in North Penn, said her board has been advised that it can respond to comments that may be hateful maybe not get into it tit-for-tat but make clear the board doesnt endorse such speech.

We cant grab the mic, or cut them off, or anything. Frankly, I think thats sometimes what they want to get the attention, said Stoll, whose board has hosted tense meetings, particularly around masking.

When people have leveled accusations against board members, theyve been permitted to speak: Stoll said: Weve always said, Thank you for your comment. Next.

Some have sought to limit the role of board members in policing public comment. In West Chester where school board president Chris McCune took the microphone this summer from a woman whose time limit expired as she was demanding to know whether the district taught critical race theory the district had its solicitor start attending meetings and enforce the limits.

In Philadelphia, the ACLU sued the district in March on behalf of two community groups alleging a new policy limiting the number of people who could comment at meetings prevented meaningful participation.

The Pennsbury parents lawsuit focused in part on actions by the districts solicitor, Peter Amuso. During a May board meeting, Amuso cut off three men who had begun to criticize the districts equity policy. One had said that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts were based on a predetermined narrative, ignoring, for example, that first-generation Nigerian immigrants excel.

Youre done! Amuso shouted at each of the men, calling their comments irrelevant.

That meeting followed controversy around the districts handling of public comments at its March meeting. The man who spoke about Nigerian immigrants, Doug Marshall, also one of the plaintiffs in the censorship lawsuit, at the March meeting had questioned equity efforts while explaining the history of racial problems in the country.

Marshall wasnt interrupted that night. But at the urging of the districts equity and diversity director, the board later struck his remarks from a video recording of the meeting, issuing a statement that the comments escalated from expressing a viewpoint to expressing beliefs and ideas that were abusive and coded in racist terms, also known as dog whistles.

In her opinion, Pratter, while not calling Marshalls comments offensive, wrote that the First Amendment protects offensive speakers, and said censorship of comments deemed racist by the district was impermissible viewpoint discrimination.

She didnt agree with the districts argument that not enforcing its policies would lead to violence calling the claim deliberately provocative. She noted the board could call police if a speaker threatens violence, a policy the plaintiffs didnt challenge.

They also didnt challenge a ban on obscene comments. And while Pennsbury can no longer prohibit personally directed comments, lawyers say that doesnt mean school boards have to allow speakers to target a board members family or other personal characteristics only their role in the district.

Sultanik said the decision could be viewed optimistically, as an invitation for tolerance of another viewpoint that you might find personally offensive.

But in a time of heightened animosity and polarization and the potential for another round of contentious board meetings while the future of Pennsylvanias school-masking order is up in the air that might not be realistic, Sultanik said.

I really believe that much of this public discourse is doing very little to change anybodys mind, he said.

Originally posted here:
Pennsbury school board now cant stop public comments it deems offensive. What does it mean for other districts? - The Philadelphia Inquirer