Much of Government Response to Parent’s Criticism of School Board “Was Beyond the Pale,” but Can’t Justify an Injunction …
From yesterday’s Third Circuit decision in Reading v. North Hanover Township, written by Judge Thomas Hardiman and joined by Judges Kent Jordan and David Porter:
Angela Reading, a mother and former school board member, alleged that federal and local government officials violated her right to free speech by engaging in a campaign of censorship and retaliation after she posted comments on Facebook. She requested a preliminary injunction to prohibit those officials from further interfering with her First Amendment rights. After the District Court denied her motion, Reading appealed.
{Reading’s allegations are serious and raise important questions under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. Reading expressed concern about whether her seven-year-old daughter was being exposed to sexual topics that have no place in an elementary school. Regardless of whether one agrees with Reading’s concern, the record suggests that Defendants’ response to her blog post was, to put it mildly, disproportionate.}
Although much of the government actors’ behavior was beyond the pale, the record does not show a substantial risk that their acts of censorship and retaliation will recur. So Reading lacks standing to seek a preliminary injunction….
More on the factual claims:
The controversy that gave rise to this case unfolded at the Upper Elementary School (UES or School) in the North Hanover Township School District. As part of its 2022 “Week of Respect,” the School invited students to design posters “demonstrat[ing] that UES [is] a safe place where everyone [is] accepted.” Some students offered “messages of general acceptance,” while others supported more specific causes.
One such poster, anchored in the center by the acronyms “LGBTQ” and “UES,” featured descriptions of various sexual identities and their corresponding flags. The poster included a “bi” flag, a “genderfluid” flag, and a “polysexual” flag, among others. It announced that “different is cool” and instructed students that “you are who you are.”
Angela Reading first saw the poster when she attended the School’s “Math Night.” After her seven-year-old daughter asked what the word “polysexual” meant, she was “livid.” She took her concerns to social media. In a lengthy post to the “NJ Fresh Faced Schools” Facebook page, Reading wondered why an elementary school would permit its students to “research topics of sexuality,” and worried that adults were “talking about their sexual life” with her children. She called the poster “perverse” and argued that it “should be illegal to expose my kids to sexual content.” Although “[k]ids should respect differences,” Reading explained, they “should not be forced to learn about and accept concepts of sexuality in elementary school.” Reading concluded the post by noting that her comments were “made in [her] capacity as a private citizen and not in [her] capacity as a [school] board member.”
Reading’s post quickly drew the ire of military personnel at nearby Joint Base McGuire-Dix Lakehurst, some of whom had children at the School. Major Chris Schilling was especially fixated on the post. In an email to local parents, Schilling complained that Reading’s post was “filled with too many logical fallacies to list.” He accused her of “try[ing] to over sexualize things” to “give her arguments more power,” insisting that she did “not hav[e] the proper resources and/or education on the matter.” Schilling was “very concern[ed]” that Reading served as a local school board member.
Writing from his personal email account, Schilling also worried that Reading would “stir[ ] up right wing extremists.” He raised this alarm in another email to parents, warning that Reading’s post “could needlessly injure the school and others in the community.” He encouraged parents to speak out against Reading and to “keep the pressure on until her disruptive and dangerous actions cease.”
The controversy grew when Schilling elevated his concerns to the leadership at Joint Base McGuire-Dix Lakehurst. Now writing from his military email account, Schi
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