First, it was the masking of children that triggered a recent parent-led lawsuit against Pennsbury.
This time, alleged free speech censorship is at issue as the school district faces legal 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 Board’s speech policies be deemed unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs are suing the school district, school board and the district’s 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 censorship or 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.
https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/news/2021/10/04/pennsbury-lawsuit-alleges-free-speech-violations-censoring-meeting-videos/5994270001/