Federal judge says Grapevine-Colleyville ISD can continue its speech policy - for now
A federal judge denied a motion to issue a temporary restraining order against the Grapevine-Colleyville school district, saying there wasn’t enough proof that a policy to limit speech was unconstitutional.
But U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman said in his ruling that he is concerned about the district’s uneven implementation of the policy and that it merits review.
Mitchell Ryan sued the Grapevine-Colleyville school district and board President Jorge Rodriguez last week in federal court, alleging that his free speech constitutional rights were violated when he spoke about Colleyville Heritage High School’s first Black principal, James Whitfield, during the Aug. 23 meeting.
Ryan was seeking a temporary restraining order against the school district to prohibit limiting speech content during board meetings.
In his ruling, Pittman expressed his concerns about how the school district’s “Decorum Policy” is enforced during meetings.
“The Court is highly confident that with the observations and admonitions of this Order in mind, President Rodriguez and the GCISD school board, will fairly and equally enforce GCISD’s Decorum Policy until a full and complete hearing can be conducted on the Motion for a Preliminary Injunction. Certainly, President Rodriguez is not at liberty to pick and choose which citizens he will enforce the Decorum Policy against. The arbitrary enforcement of the Decorum Policy by an elected government body against one concerned citizen and not others rocks the very foundations of the First Amendment,” Pittman stated in his ruling.
Pittman noted that the video of the Aug. 23 meeting showed that five speakers, not including Ryan, referred to people by name without interruption.
Pittman wrote, “This is both deeply concerning and disturbing. And under the Court’s reading of the Decorum Policy, this appears to be in direct contravention of the directive that all speakers must refrain from mentioning specific names of staff members during their comments.”
Pittman also wrote that Ryan failed to provide proof that he was denied his First Amendment rights because he did not differentiate between a “standard speech content restriction and a speech restriction on public property which would be considered under a forum analysis.”
Ryan did not speak during the two open forums during Monday night’s board meeting. Ryan’s lawsuit stated that he planned to attend the meeting and future board meetings to speak about Whitfield.
In his lawsuit, Ryan alleged that Rodriguez repeatedly stopped him from speaking although he allowed others to speak in support of Whitfield. The suit stated that Ryan anticipated being “shut down” again by Rodriguez over the district’s speech content policies.
During a hearing Friday on whether to issue the temporary restraining order, Pittman asked about the district’s policy prohibiting the public from naming and criticizing district employees during public comment portions of meetings and asked why it was dated Aug. 22, a day before Ryan spoke.
“A policy that states that citizens are prohibited from criticizing in a public forum and allegedly shutting down free speech does give me some concern,” he said.
He added that it is important to balance a meeting allowing people to speak but to also have decorum to avoid “fistfights.”
Joseph Cleveland, an attorney for the school district, said the policy dates back to 2018, but the district updated the policy on Aug. 22 after there were problems with noise and signs during recent board meetings, including one on July 26 where members of the audience, including a former school board candidate spoke about Whitfield.
Stetson Clark accused Whitfield of teaching and promoting critical race theory, and although Rodriguez repeatedly asked Clark to stop speaking, Clark continued to name Whitfield, which is against district policy.
Whitfield posted about the incident on Facebook, saying he could no longer be silent about the racial attacks against him.
He is currently on administrative leave, and earlier this week, the school board voted unanimously to allow the superintendent to notify Whitfield of the possibility that his contract won’t be renewed.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 4:16 PM.