Indiana School Tries to Silence Parents on Facebook with Draconian Policy – IOTW Report

Indiana School Tries to Silence Parents on Facebook with Draconian Policy

PJM:

An Indiana school district is under fire for writing a policy that parents and the ACLU say is a violation of their First Amendment rights and an attempt to shield the board from legitimate criticism. The North West Hendricks School Corporation’s “Parent Code of Conduct ” says parents shall not “use Facebook or any other Social Network to make rude/offensive comments towards individual staff members or the school in general.” It goes on to outlaw the use of “Facebook or any other Social Network to campaign against or fuel outrage against individual staff members, the school, or policies implemented by the school or district.” If a parent is in violation of these rules they can be banned from school property and events, according to the policy.

This school board seems to have forgotten that public schools and their boards are government agencies and they are prohibited by the Constitution of the United States from establishing any rule that infringes on the public’s right to free speech. Yet, trying to curtail the public’s ability to embarrass public officials is a common tactic by thin-skinned public boards with royalty complexes. I wrote a book detailing the Orland Park Public Library board in Illinois attempting to do the exact same thing to the public who wanted to criticize their computer policies that allowed men to access graphic adult material in front of children. They were sued and lost a big chunk of money for violating several state laws, including curtailing free speech. read more

11 Comments on Indiana School Tries to Silence Parents on Facebook with Draconian Policy

  1. Those who want to rule the world want to begin with taking our rights as parents away.

    That’s what has been happening for a long time. This is just a blatant first amendment attack, but what about teaching about deviant behavior of all kinds without parents knowledge, indoctrination classes in what should be history or civics, teaching the captive children to fear the normal ups and downs of weather to recruit more adherents to the Climate Change hysteria, and many other examples.

    Get your child out of public education, and get involved with what they are learning. It is a parents basic responsibility to care for their child and not foist off that onto teachers and school systems.

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  2. Man up parents you own the kids that you send to the schools that you pay for and agree to have operate! Get rid of all your employees (eliminate the teacher unions) that don’t want to play by your rules!

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  3. Oh, to be an attorney in that area. Class action lawsuit for violation of the first amendment. Its a sure bet. Can’t lose.

    How about prior restraint?
    The first notable case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled on a prior restraint issue was Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931). In that case the Court held prior restraints to be unconstitutional, except in extremely limited circumstances such as national security issues

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  4. Some guy named Lenin said
    “give me 4 years with your children and
    the seed I plant will never be uprooted”.
    All this old scary commie $hit is coming to pass…

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  5. This is why teachers need a union.

    You have crazy parents, crazy kids, crazy administrators, crazy school board members. ANY ONE of them can go jihad on a teacher for no reason, and get them fired, thereby making them pretty much forever ineligible to ever teach again, as an application will say, “Have you ever resigned or been forced to resign from a teaching position, explain with dates and locations.”

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