{"id":5234,"date":"2023-07-15T08:31:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-15T08:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/school-districts-punish-folks-who-draw-unwanted-attention-to-policies\/"},"modified":"2023-07-15T08:31:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-15T08:31:31","slug":"school-districts-punish-folks-who-draw-unwanted-attention-to-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5234","title":{"rendered":"School Districts Punish Folks Who Draw Unwanted Attention To Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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School leaders are used to toiling in obscurity, unlikely to draw large crowds even when they try to. But waves of controversial decisions have provoked examples of disciplinary actions against people who bring unwanted attention to a district.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania<\/strong><\/p>\n

For one example, we can turn to rural northwestern Pennsylvania. The Penncrest School District, which has been working to get reading restrictions in place for its students. The district had previously expressed its objections to critical race theory, and in 2021, the board sought to impose reading restrictions.<\/p>\n

The language, modeled after similar controversial book restrictions in Bucks County (apparently co-written by an attorney from the Independence Law Center, the legal arm of the far right Pennsylvania Family Institute) was somewhat neutral, but board member comments on social media were not. Commenting on Facebook about a picture of a Pride month book display in the high school library, a member commented:<\/p>\n

Besides the point of being totally evil, this is not what we need to be teaching kids. They aren’t at school to be brainwashed into thinking homosexuality is okay. Its [sic] actually being promoted to the point where it’s even ‘cool’.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Member David Valesky also noted in separate discussion of books about race that Black Lives Matter \u201cis for destroying\u201d and \u201cthey aren\u2019t protecting Blacks.\u201d When they passed the reading restriction rules, Valesky responded to the possibility of legal challenges with:<\/p>\n

If we go to court over it, so be it, because at the end of the day we\u2019re standing up for what\u2019s right and for what God has said is right and true.<\/em><\/p>\n

Their board lawyer resigned, noting that his advice about the legality of their actions was not only repeatedly ignored, but two board members called his opinion \u201ca joke,\u201d \u201cworthless,\u201d and \u201cnot even legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this drew a couple of lawsuits and attention from national media, including a USA Today reporter who has file Right To Know requests, and Judy Woodruff, who visited the district earlier this year for a piece for PBS Newshour.<\/p>\n

Board President Luigi DeFrancesco earlier this week introduced a motion to censure board member Jeff Brooks, accusing him of stirring up commotion around all of the board\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the resolution accuses Brooks of \u201cunprofessional conduct\u201d because he \u201cincite[d] the gay community against board members,\u201d provoked Right To Know requests which led to unnecessary legal expenses (when the Meadville Tribune asked DeFrancesco how much expense, he replied \u201cI have no idea\u201d), and was \u201ccommunicating with the media, specifically with USA Today which led to the RTK requests.\u201d Brooks is also accused of harassing board members, including harassing DeFrancesco by exposing his emails that led to a RTK request.<\/p>\n

In short, Brooks is accused of drawing widespread attention to the conservative members\u2019 actions as board members. And during a contentious board meeting (in which one board member threatened to take the chair\u2019s gavel and \u201cstuff it somewhere\u201d), the board voted in favor of the censure.<\/p>\n

(I have reached out to DeFrancesco via e-mail and will update this post should he reply.)<\/p>\n

Wisconsin<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Waukesha School District administration determined that a first grade class would not be allowed to sing the song \u201cRainbowland\u201d because it \u201ccould be deemed controversial.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song, by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton, features lyrics vaguely promoting a world where we can \u201cbe who we are\u201d without \u201cjudgment and hate.\u201d The song was initially replaced with the Muppets\u2019 \u201cRainbow Connection.\u201d Administration also nixed that choice, but reversed their decision after receiving parent e-mails.<\/p>\n

The teacher, Melissa Tempel, is a National Board Certified teacher, and a co-editor of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality<\/em>, <\/em>an award-wining book about inclusion and representation in schools.<\/p>\n

Tempel tweeted a comment<\/a> about the administration choice (\u201dWhen will it end?\u201d) and it went viral (currently over 350K views) and drew national media attention over spring break. When Tempel returned from break, administrators were there to great her, along with police to escort her out of the building; she\u2019d been placed on administrative leave.<\/p>\n

As her suspension dragged on, her superintendent wrote to her that \u201cthe manner in which you chose to express your disagreement with the district\u2019s decision over the song was inappropriate, disruptive and in violation of various district policies.\u201d Therefore, \u201cI will be recommending to the Board of Education that your employment with the School District of Waukesha be terminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, while Penncrest was gearing up to censure Jeff Brooks, Waukesha\u2019s Superintendent James Sebert, who had previously praised the teacher (who has no other disciplinary action in her file) was testifying:<\/p>\n

Ms. Tempel deliberately brought negative attention to the school district because she disagreed with the decision as opposed to following protocol and procedure. I believe that behavior is intolerable.<\/em><\/p>\n

The board then terminated Tempel.<\/p>\n

Of course, if either Brooks or Tempel know the secret of going viral and directing national attention to a local event, they should be rich soon. On the other hand, if school districts don\u2019t want to be embarrassed on a national scale, the solution is not to micro-manage other peoples\u2019 communication in order to squelch any mention of your actions.<\/p>\n

But this sort of thing is inevitable. As some districts veer into more controversial actions, some school leaders will try to manage the controversy by punishing anyone they perceive as bringing public attention to that controversy.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Tempel has indicated that a lawsuit is in the works, demonstrating one other downside for the use of this technique for dealing with dissension in the ranks\u2014sometimes when you try to hold the lid down on the boiling pot, it just makes a bigger mess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n