Pennsbury hit with second lawsuit in two weeks. This one challenges censorship of board meetings – Bucks County Courier Times

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First, it was the masking of children that triggered a recent parent-led lawsuit against Pennsbury.

This time, allegedfree speech censorship is at issue as theschool district faceslegal action for the second time in a matter of weeks.

Four Pennsbury taxpayers Doug Marshall, Simon Campbell, Robert Abrams and Tim Daly filed a lawsuit asking that Pennsbury School Boards speech policies be deemed unconstitutional.

The plaintiffs are suing the school district, school board and the districts solicitors, Michael Clarke and Peter Amuso.

Equity, diversity and education director Cherrissa Gibson is also named as a defendant in the federal lawsuit.

Filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the suit claims Pennsbury repeatedly violated the First Amendment through its previous censorship of public school board meetings.

Each individually named defendant has either perpetuated the censorship of plaintiffs speech, personally directed that censorshipor exhibited actual knowledge of and acquiescence in the censorship, the court document reads, claiming Gibson acted as a prime ringleader.

Last spring,Pennsbury came under fire for its restricting and editing of certain public comments from its school board meetings.

Comments from the plaintiffs were cut short and removed from recordings of the public meetings, with the school board citing a violation of Pennsbury School Board Policy 903. The edited videos were then posted on district social media.

(The defendants) have done everything from shouting down citizens who dare question the official narrative; conspired to silence and denounce dissenters; and even memory holed speech based on its viewpoint, deleting speech from public records as though it was never spoken, the document stated.

Related: Pennsbury cut public comments in BOE meeting videos. When a resident blasted the move, it went viral.

In March and May, the comments of Marshall, Abrams and Daly were cut from the uploaded versions of the school board meetings, with the comments in May alsocut short during their live comments.

Following the March meeting,Gibson calledMarshalls commentsoffensiveandabusive" via emails obtained via Right-to-Know requests.

She asked that the comments, focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory,be removed frompublic record as a Policy 903 violation.

Campbells fiery speech at the June meeting denouncing Pennsburys editing of the meetings gained national attention and his video went viral.

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Read more: Three Pennsbury parents sue school district over COVID-19 masking requirements

The 65-page lawsuit documentreferences Policy 903, part of which says the presiding officer can interrupt or stop a public comment if thestatement "is personally directed, abusive, obscene or irrelevant.

Defendants have also interpreted Policy 903 to allow them to excise such speech from the official recordings of Pennsbury School Board meetings, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs also called out the school board for editing the policy in June. Prior to that, speakers during both pre-vote and post-vote comment periods werent limited to discussing only agenda items.

At the June 17 meeting, the board updated the rule. Now, speakers during the first public comment period can only address agenda items and cant speak again during the second period about topics not on the agenda.

Thelawsuitalso claims the boards members dont believe public commenters have First Amendment protections, noting a March 2014 remark from Clarke to Abrams at a school board meeting.

The suit says Clarke had attempted to censor Abrams, speaking over him and declaring, you dont have First Amendment rights in here;this is public comment during a board meeting, and as Ive indicated before, if youre going to say things that are factually inaccurate, Im going to have to correct you.

The document cites several other instances where the plaintiffs felt Pennsbury was in violation of theFirst Amendment, including during the virtual meetings held during the pandemic.

The school board accepted written comments to be read at the online meetings during that period.

Daly asserts via the lawsuit that his criticism of the board for filling vacancies with controlled votes of members of their preferred political party was neither read or posted online at the Dec. 17, 2020 meeting.

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Abrams had also submitted a written comment that same meeting.

It accused the board of violating free speech and criticized Pennsburys academic and financial performance. The comment, like Dalys, was not read or posted online.

Pennsbury officials are trampling on the First Amendment rights of parents and residents to speak their mind about their schools, said Institute for Free Speechs vice president for litigation, Alan Gura, who is representing the plaintiffs.

Pennsbury'ssupervisor of public relations, Jennifer Neill, said as of Monday afternoon that the district had not yet been served with the lawsuit.

"We will respond appropriately through our solicitor if and when we are served," Neill said.

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Pennsbury hit with second lawsuit in two weeks. This one challenges censorship of board meetings - Bucks County Courier Times