{"id":5933,"date":"2021-10-14T10:37:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T14:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/?p=5933"},"modified":"2021-12-06T11:49:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T16:49:59","slug":"rochester-public-schools-cancels-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/rochester-public-schools-cancels-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS CANCELS FREE SPEECH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Canceling Free Speech<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thescoop.info\/rochester-public-schools-cancels-free-speech\/\"><time datetime=\"2021-09-08T08:07:00-05:00\">SEPTEMBER 8, 2021<\/time><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published with permission of the author. A similar piece ran as an Op-Ed in the Rochester Post-Bulletin on June 26, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<em>If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.\u201d<br>\u2015 George Washington<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At its April 27 meeting, the Rochester Public School Board thought they skirted the First Amendment as part of passing a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/go.boarddocs.com\/mn\/rps535\/Board.nsf\/files\/C2GKZB53EC1D\/$file\/2021.04.26%20Draft%20RPS%20Government%20Speech%20Resolution.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">resolution<\/a>. The crux of the resolution is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"block-a7eca913-10df-4d83-87be-bd5048952838\">We adopt the following messages of inclusion as official government speech:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u201cBlack Lives Matter.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cBrown Lives Matter.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cIndigenous Lives Matter.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cAll Are Welcome Here.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cStop Asian Hate.\u201d<\/li><li>[the gay pride flag]<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unanimously, it passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They didn\u2019t simply adopt a message. They labeled it as government speech. Why? To block free speech. Why might we think that? Because they said so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Superintendent Michael Mu\u00f1oz&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PtPb-KIYlsE?t=7104\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">introduced the discussion<\/a>&nbsp;by mentioning what he took to be a problem to be solved: staff members who wanted to express support for such as Black Lives Matter didn\u2019t want to be taken to task for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mu\u00f1oz pointed out that, \u201cWe had the&nbsp;<em><strong>issue<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;that when you allow individual employees to express their personal views on a particular topic during their work hours, it must be done in a way that is seen as impartial. \u2026<em><strong>[T]he district cannot allow one type of message and prohibit another type of message simply because it expresses a different point of view.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d Emphasis mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, they had an issue with personal expression of some ideas and a problem of being balanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The First Amendment codifies our right to speak our minds but not to be free of repercussions for what we say. That isn\u2019t good enough for the district. It wanted something \u201cbetter\u201d for itself and its staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the board\u2019s discussion, they were explicit about finding a way around the First Amendment in order to disallow opinions different than the ones they intended to prefer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The district\u2019s attorney, John Edison&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PtPb-KIYlsE?t=7632\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">joined the meeting<\/a>&nbsp;to wonder, \u201chow to support certain messages\u2026 while also being mindful of the parameters of what is\u2026 permitted under the First Amendment\u201d and, \u201c<em><strong>government speech\u2026 is different<\/strong><\/em>\u2026 these are the messages that we\u2019re communicating as the school district and by doing that,&nbsp;<em><strong>we\u2019re&nbsp;<\/strong><u><strong>not<\/strong><\/u><strong>&nbsp;creating a forum for other types of speech to also enter the forum<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d Emphasis mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, government speech was seen as a hammer to allow the district and its staff their opinions, protected from other opinions whether of students, parents, staff, or the rest of us. And who\u2019s ever heard of government speech?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It doesn\u2019t even matter what the resolution was about: the fact they were trying to find a way around the First Amendment in order to reserve authority for their own preferred speech is unconstitutional. Literally un-American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About the resolution,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PtPb-KIYlsE?t=8248\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Board Chair Jean Marvin said<\/a>, \u201c[I]t is not about telling students what to think or what they can and cannot say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But that was exactly part of their discussion leading up to their vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to a staff member who contacted me,&nbsp;we have classrooms with a gay pride flag and no American flag. That doesn\u2019t make our students think? Not mentioning the lives of our largest student population doesn\u2019t make our students think? Really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That we desire and should expect a thoroughly safe, inclusive, and successful environment for all our students should be a no-brainer. To explicitly say we want it for specific groups is pathetic. To do it in a way that attempts to avoid the First Amendment is outrageous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its rush to woke-ism, Rochester Public Schools has embarrassed itself and the community. Its anti-First Amendment gambit should not become a habit nor stand the test of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014Bruce Kaskubar<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank You Bruce, for allowing me to publish this Op-Ed.  You can find more written by Bruce Kaskubar at: https:\/\/thescoop.info\/ &#8211; Sincerely, Elizabeth Hanke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canceling Free Speech SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 Published with permission of the author. A similar piece ran as an Op-Ed in the Rochester Post-Bulletin on June 26, 2021. \u201cIf freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.\u201d\u2015 George Washington At its April 27 meeting, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5483,"featured_media":5934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairforall.org\/southern-minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}