At a June 22 meeting of the Foley Public School Board in Minnesota, Katy DeMarais was discussing the district’s handling of special education concerns involving her child. While explaining those concerns, Katy referred to the district’s special education director by title. The board chair stopped her. The reason? The employee was “very easily identified,” and speakers were told they could not talk about staff at a public meeting.
Later that same night, Katy’s husband, Blake DeMarais, tried to discuss related concerns about the district’s handling of their child’s education. He tried to comply with the directive — inserting long pauses instead of naming specific personnel. But when he mentioned the word “superintendent,” that was enough for the board to cut him off and stop him from finishing his comment.
Then, it happened to Blake again. At the Aug. 17 meeting, he read aloud from an email sent by the district’s attorney concerning compensatory education for their child. The quoted passage named the district’s superintendent. Once again, the board chair stopped him. “When you start talking about staff members,” the chair explained, “that’s when we have to stop.”
How are Katy and Blake — or any other parents — supposed to express concerns about school district actions when they cannot reference the officials responsible for those actions? They could not even say “superintendent,” the title of the official charged with overseeing the district’s operations.
Foley’s own policy says employees’ names and job titles — and a lot of other information about public school employees that is important for the public to know if it is to evaluate the district’s effectiveness — are public information. Minnesota law does, too.
A government employee’s public job performance isn’t confidential, and privacy cannot become a catchall excuse for shutting down people who are trying to speak about how public officials are doing their jobs. Officials also can’t invoke privacy to silence criticism they don’t like.
When a school board opens a meeting for public comment, the First Amendment protects members of the public who speak there. The board can create and enforce reasonable, viewpoint-neutral rules for public comment. But banning any mention of district job titles isn’t reasonable. And Foley should not be silencing speakers simply because their remarks identify district employees.
Tell the Foley Public School Board to stop cutting off public commenters for identifying district employees and to ensure its public comment practices respect the First Amendment.
