Public comment periods at school board meetings are meant to allow parents and taxpayers to provide feedback to their elected officials about district operations—good or bad. But school district leaders in Rock Springs, Wyo., are misusing their recently revised public comment policy to unconstitutionally silence critics. That’s why the Goldwater Institute sent two letters to Sweetwater County School District #1’s leaders this week demanding that they reverse course.
Last fall, Sweetwater #1’s Board of Trustees amended its public comment policy to prohibit comments, whether written or in-person, that discuss individual employee “performance or employment.” But the district has focused enforcement of the policy against parents who wish to criticize school employees, not against parents praising employee performance.
As Goldwater noted in its letter to district leaders, that is viewpoint discrimination, and it violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and similar sections of the Wyoming Constitution.
The problem became clear when local parent Cherell O’Driscoll, a Goldwater client, attempted to publicly criticize Sweetwater #1’s assistant superintendent—the district’s second-highest ranking administrator—both in person and in writing, when her contract came up for renewal. Cherell’s spoken comments were cut off by the board chairman and her written comments were redacted from the board’s meeting materials. However, she was allowed to make written and in-person comments praising other school employees.
Government officials simply cannot pick and choose which opinions the public is allowed to share with them. That kind of selective censorship, or viewpoint discrimination, is unconstitutional under both the First Amendment and analogous state constitutional provisions. The United States Supreme Court has time and again held that viewpoint discrimination is so egregious that the government must nearly always abstain from such regulations, and courts around the country have struck down or significantly curtailed similar school board policies and actions over the past several years.
Sweetwater #1 leaders are also violating the Wyoming Public Records Act. When the Goldwater Institute learned of the situation in Wyoming, the Institute requested copies of the unredacted written public comments the district received. But the district refused to produce them, claiming the public comments were confidential “personnel files.”
Government officials cannot hide unflattering records from the public by claiming they are part of purportedly confidential files. That would defeat the purpose of public records laws that favor transparency over secrecy.
Sweetwater #1 leaders must correct these violations by rescinding their recent policy amendments and turning over copies of the requested written public comments. Goldwater attorneys sent letters to district officials—one on behalf of Cherell O’Driscoll regarding the public comment policy, and another addressing the public record issue—encouraging them to fix the situation without the need for litigation.
In these cases and others, the Goldwater Institute will continue to stand up for citizens’ rights to free speech and to know what their government is up to.
You can read Goldwater’s letter regarding Sweetwater County School District #1’s free speech violations here. Our letter demanding the public records can be found here.
Parker Jackson is a Staff Attorney at the Goldwater Institute.
