SHUT UP! Indiana School Tries to Silence Parents on Facebook with Draconian Policy

[PeteS in CA]

https://pjmedia.com/trending/shut-up-indiana-school-tries-to-silence-parents-on-facebook-with-draconian-policy/

SHUT UP! Indiana School Tries to Silence Parents on Facebook with Draconian Policy

An Indiana school district is under fire for writing a policy that parents and the ACLU say is a violation of their First Amendment rights and an attempt to shield the board from legitimate criticism. The North West Hendricks School Corporation’s “Parent Code of Conduct ” says parents shall not "use Facebook or any other Social Network to make rude/offensive comments towards individual staff members or the school in general." It goes on to outlaw the use of "Facebook or any other Social Network to campaign against or fuel outrage against individual staff members, the school, or policies implemented by the school or district." If a parent is in violation of these rules they can be banned from school property and events, according to the policy.

This school board seems to have forgotten that public schools and their boards are government agencies and they are prohibited by the Constitution of the United States from establishing any rule that infringes on the public's right to free speech. Yet, trying to curtail the public's ability to embarrass public officials is a common tactic by thin-skinned public boards with royalty complexes. ...

This is an example of many PSs' "respect" for parents.

[Wingnut]

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.

[Neverdul]

I’m sort of on two minds on this. On one, hand legitimate criticisms especially regarding policy, sure. Free speech. All for it.

But making rude or offensive comments about individual staff members?

To me if you as a parent have a gripe, perhaps ginning up outrage on FB isn’t the best way to go about it. And I say this as a relative of a teacher and a teaching assistant one of whom was berated and bullied by a parent on FB over something that never happened.

The kid made up a story because he was mad because he was disciplined and rightly so, but the mom, instead of talking to her or to the principal, launched a FB campaign trying to enlist other parents to join her in an attempt to get this very dedicated and hardworking teaching assistant fired, not only repeating her son’s false story but adding all sorts of other false accusations.