cross post from HatCityBLOG
In advance of tonight’s Board of Education meeting in Danbury I decided to take a look at the agenda and noticed this small blurb.
The Board welcomes Public Participation and asks that speakers please limit their comments to 3 minutes. Speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them. The Board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about the Board of Education personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Danbury Public School System.
This can’t be for real. The Board of Ed will NOT allow any form of criticism regarding the Board of Ed a member(s) of the Board of Ed and/or a member(s) of the school system? ?
Based on this bizzare wording, I guess any expressions of praise about board personnel, personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Danbury Public School System WILL be allowed.
In light of recent questionable decisions by the school board, this restriction on free speech doesn’t seem right…or legal.
UPDATE: Post has been updated to more accurately reflect my position that the BOE is restricting members of the public from criticizing members of the Board of Ed or anyone connected with the Danbury School system.
Thank you for being so proactive in exposing and digging through all the garbage running rampant in the city…I look forward to seeing your updates…good luck fighting the fight…oh by the way – I attempted to leave a comment for Mayor Boughton on his blog – only to be denied – I chastised him for worrying about a two-bit movie festival – when he should be hanging his head in shame that the city has a homeless population – and to do something great with his power – but he seems more concerned about the skeleton of a downtown – Thanks for being a voice for us fed up with it all…
Brookfield tried this same thing a few years ago. They cut the public speaking time per person from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. This despite the offical Board Policy still reading that there was a 5 minute limit on public comment. At the same time, it was noted in the public comment sign-up book wording that effectively said no negative comments would be allowed. Challenge it – we did. Free speach and the ablity of the public to view documents are both vital to a democracy.
Susan, I respectfully disagree.
The wording is rather clear. It states that the BOE “will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about the Board of Education personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Danbury Public School System.”
Using the recent public criticism regarding the site visit to Arizona, in theory, if one would criticize the decision of School Superintendent Sal Pascarella and BOE chairwoman Podhajski’s leadership during the public speaking portion of the BOE’s meeting, based on the language on the BOE’s website, he or she would be out of order.
No where in the wording does it state that the BOE will restrict expressions of praise regarding “board personnel, personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Danbury Public School System, just complaints.
In any regard, in my opinion, I question if this type of restriction on speech is even constitutional. I will update my post in order to make my point clearer.
No, read again you got it wrong. You can criticise what they do but not the people or the students or people at the school. You can praise the board just not individual people personally.