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

[churchmouse]

Yet another reason why we (who live in Hendricks county, though not in this school district) homeschool.

This district would not like me. This is exactly the issue that I would force them to act on, by attempting to expel me from the school property that my property taxes pay for. It would make a great lesson on what constitutional protection of rights actually means.

Exactly. To the point.

 

[HoughMade]

From the people who brought you the pervasive social media campaign: "Go Red for Ed", a policy that parents shouldn't criticize schools online.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

With the consolidation stuff going on (and the perceived shenanigans) with the NLCS right now, probably 2/3 of the parents would be banned by now.

 

[actaeon277]

I don't have any kids.
But based on my previous run ins with authority figures overstepping their bounds, I think I'd start on a discussion of the Streisand effect.
Then a discussion about corrupt regimes silencing speech.

 

[cosermann]

Reason #327 to home educate. Twenty-six years and 7 kids later and I've never, ever been part of the public school nonsense.

 

[JAL]

Do you have Prince Albert in a can.

He left but didn't flush.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

He left but didn't flush.

Okay, fess up. How long have you been waiting to use that line?

 

[JAL]

The reason these petty tyrants act like petty tyrants and do what they damn well please is they know what it would cost to take them to court over it. I would estimate the cost at about $8,000 - $12,000, and that's if you're lucky. The school board has the deep pockets of the school corporation's treasury to pay for attorneys (plural) to defend the school board and school corporation, and I guarantee you those attorneys will do everything in their power to rack up enormous billing hours for the plaintiffs' attorney in the effort to bankrupt them out of the lawsuit. It's the normal tactic. In the meantime, guess who pays all the attorney fees for the school board. Yup, the taxes paid by the people who live in that school corporation with their property taxes. I can also guarantee you there will be an info-wars waged by the board claiming it's frivolous and that a few disgruntled idiots are costing everyone big dollars that could be better spent. It's how this kind of thing goes down. Ultimately, the taxpayers pay the bill, even if the school board loses. The members of the board are protected by a principle called "Qualified Immunity" because they're elected to the board. You cannot sue them individually or personally for acts carried out as board members and the exceptions for that have an extremely high bar to clear demonstrating their willful acts so egregiously and knowingly violate constitutional civil rights as to have been criminally negligent. In short, they can act with near impunity and it doesn't personally cost them a dime. Everyone else pays - the plaintiff(s) who hired the attorney and the taxpayers in the school corporation. If they're lucky they can get a ruling for the school board to pay their attorney fees - if they're lucky. Toss a coin on that one. Even if they do, they school corporation pays and it's spread among the taxpayers.

I would hope the ACLU can take them to task pro bono and bear the brunt of the legal cost for a group of plaintiffs - and eventually convince the board's law firm they cannot prevail. Since the board doesn't have to pay for that personally, they very typically will not take any settlement offer, dragging it out to the very bitter end. Saw how this played out with a city mayor and the city attorney with an absurd lawsuit everyone involved knew the mayor could not win, but he wouldn't let up. Ultimately the city attorney resigned stating he wasn't going to have his reputation sullied by the mayor's antics. The mayor didn't care. Wasn't his money. Got another attorney and it dragged on until the State Supreme Court declined to take up the Appellate Court's decision that ruled against him. City paid all the legal fees for everyone, plus compensation for the damages caused by the actions that precipitated it. In short, the ones that lost were the taxpayers - and the mayor who was ousted at the next election, but he never paid a dime to the plaintiff or the city. Wasn't that lawsuit alone, he was like a bull in a china shop and pissed everyone off, including his own political party that ran someone against him in the primary - which is where he lost. After that, he moved to only God knows where to restart a political career (his big dream was becoming a political bigwig).

Bottom Line: this kind of crap gets very, very ugly quickly when it ends up in litigation.

John

 

[JAL]

Okay, fess up. How long have you been waiting to use that line?

It popped into my head within a couple minutes of reading it - not wanting to resort to any of the standard responses.

John