Federal Lawsuit Accuses Pennsbury Of ‘Unlawful Censorship’

Four Pennsbury School District residents have filed a federal lawsuit that claims their First Amendment rights have been violated.

Last Friday, Doug Marshall, Tim Daly, Robert Abrams, and former school board member Simon Campbell, all of whom had their public comments cut from school board meetings earlier this year, filed a federal lawsuit against the school district, solicitors Michael Clarke and Peter Amuso, Pennsbury Director of Equity, Diversity, and Education Dr. Cherrissa Gibson, former district communications director Ann Langtry, School Board President Christine Toy-Dragoni, and the other members of the school board in their official and individual capacities.

The lawsuit claims school district officials violated the First Amendment by restricting public comments made at board meetings. It states that “Pennsbury’s board members and officials set out to censor citizens whose political views they despise.”

The lawsuit follows the district getting caught editing public comments from the March and May meetings. The comments were made by the plaintiffs.

The editing of board meeting videos captured local and national attention in summer.

Melissa Melewsky, the media law counsel at the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, told LevittownNow.com in early summer that the edits weren’t violating state Right To Know laws but posed questions about whether the First Amendment was being violated.

The lawsuit claims school board Policy 903, which was revised after the district removed some comments from public meeting recordings, and another policy stifled free speech.

The complaint quotes Clarke, one of the district’s attorneys, as stating to Abrams: “You don’t have First Amendment rights in here. This is public comment during a board meeting, and as I’ve indicated before, if you’re going to say things that are factually inaccurate, I’m going to have to correct you.”

The lawsuit points out times when the district shut down public comments that criticized the district and board, citing several incidents in 2020 and 2021. The filing mentions the February meeting where the board declined reading public comment, a break from their standard practice.

The lawsuit mentions Marshall’s March comments where he claimed the district’s effort to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusiveness were poor framing for students learning about a “very complex issue.” His comments talked of race and added his interpretation of the history of the topic.

In the days following his comments, Gibson, the district’s director of equity, diversity, and education, raised Marshall’s comments and statements with the district’s administration and school board president. She said Marshall’s comments were based on “explicitly racist ideas.” She further suggested the district remove a portion of Marshall’s public comments from public view and discussed a procedure for handling controversial comments in the future.

Toy-Dragoni, the school board president, then sent a letter to parents that said Marshall’s comments “contained micro-aggressions as well as explicitly-racist ideas that connected the Black community to several commonly-held, stereotypical beliefs that are harmful.” She apologized for not stopping his comments at the meeting and that she “didn’t act in the best interest of our entire community.”

“Defendants’ statement attacking Marshall apparently re-enforced a culture of hostility to First Amendment rights at Pennsbury,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also focuses on the May meeting when solicitor Amuso ended the public comments by Daly, Marshall, and Abrams. It cites Amuso’s shouting at the men to end their comments and calls his outburst a “performance” that was “unlawful.”

In the filing, comments by board members Wachpress, Palsky, Kannan, and Waldorf appearing to support the limiting of the comments are cited.

The June meeting, which led to Campbell’s criticism of the board going viral, is also mentioned in the lawsuit.

“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 lawsuit claims.

The complaint calls out Gibson as the “prime ringleader,” the attorneys for “advocating” for censorship, and the school board members and district staff for allowing it to happen.

The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiffs “fear” their speeches might be edited from future board recordings and that the district could subject the men to “negative attention from law enforcement or limit their access to Pennsbury property.”

The board is additionally accused of strictly enforcing a requirement for public speakers to list their home addresses at some meetings, while only requiring the municipality of residence at other meetings.

“When Defendants enforce the practice, each instance of enforcement constitutes an invasion of Plaintiffs’ privacy, and controversial matters weighs upon their decisions to speak about,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit presents the argument that the district’s editing of public comments and termination of comments by Abrams, Daly, Campbell, and Marshall was due to the viewpoints of the men.

“The government may not silence speech because it criticizes government officials or employees, or their favorite ideas or initiatives, even if that speech does so in ways that many people may find unpleasant. Allegations of hurt feelings, real or spurious, do not justify censorship of public speech,” the lawsuit affirms, noting the famed U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.

“It is axiomatic that criticism of school officials, school employees, school rules and regulations, school budgets, and school curricula are germane to the business of school boards—regardless of whether school board members want to hear such criticism or believe that it is fair,” the complaint further states. “The First Amendment prohibits the exclusion of these viewpoints from public speech at school board meetings.”

The nonprofit Washington D.C.-based Institute for Free Speech is representing the plaintiffs.

“Pennsbury officials are trampling on the First Amendment rights of parents and residents to speak their mind about their schools. They have cut off parents in the middle of sentences, yelled over critics to prevent them from being heard, edited remarks out of recordings of public meetings, and intimidated speakers by forcing them to publicly announce their home address,” Institute for Free Speech Vice President for Litigation Alan Gura said in a statement provided to LevittownNow.com.

Three of the men filing the lawsuit issued statements Monday.

“This lawsuit serves as a valuable civics lesson for America’s public school students. Pennsbury’s censorship-promoting School Board is not above the law. When government officials strive to silence the First Amendment rights of American citizens, those officials can be held liable in federal court,” said Campbell, who posted a video on the lawsuit.

“For years, the board’s attorneys have attempted to deny that residents have a right to speak during public comment periods. With this lawsuit, we hope to end their illegal censorship and force the Board to respect our God-given and constitutional rights,” said Abrams.

“In May, Assistant Solicitor Amuso told me, ‘You’re done,’ and I told him, I’ll see you in court. The filing of this lawsuit fulfills the promise I made to ensure that the School Board members that violated my rights are held accountable,” Daly said.

As of Monday afternoon, the district said they had not yet been served with the lawsuit.

“The district has not yet been served with this lawsuit and has no comment at this time. We will respond appropriately through our solicitor if and when we are served,” spokesperson Jen Neill said.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Monday afternoon to add the comment from the district.

Previous reporting:

• Breaking With Recent Meetings, Pennsbury School Board Skips Over Public Comment
• Pennsbury Editing Some Public Comments Out Of Board Meeting Videos
• After LevittownNow.com Report, Pennsbury Releases Unedited Meeting Videos

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