CECIL COUNTY — The Cecil County Board of Education (BOE) removed recent updates made to its “Public Participation Guidelines” after an attorney contacted Cecil County Public Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Lawson citing “prior restraint of free speech” policy and threatened litigation, according to a letter sent to the BOE.
The updated guidelines went into effect in early January. The guidelines require members of the public who wish to participate in the public participation section of board meetings to submit a written copy of their remarks 48 hours in advance of the meeting they wish to participate in.
The BOE said the guidelines were implemented in response to concerns from community members regarding offensive remarks made during public participation.
“The Board decided to require remarks be submitted beforehand as a way to better monitor offensive comments being made during this part of our Board Meeting agenda,” said the CCBOE in a written statement.
After members of the public were informed that they “have not been selected” to participate in public participation after submitting their remarks, Attorney Ray Shepard contacted Lawson.
“After reviewing this policy on behalf of several Cecil County citizens, I believe the policy is patently unconstitutional because it plainly operates as a prior restraint on free speech,” said Shepard in his email to Lawson on Feb. 5.
In his letter, Shepard noted that ‘prior restraint’ comes into play when the right to exercise one’s First Amendment right depends on prior approval from public officials. Shepard further explained that the essence of a prior restraint doctrine is “a system in which bureaucrats screen material and remove from it parts that are considered too harmful or offensive for public consumption.”
The board responded to Shepard’s letter with an attorney of their own who stated, in a letter sent to Shepard on Tuesday, Feb. 5, that the board’s updated guidelines do not violate the First Amendment as the board has never created a form for unfettered public participation.
The BOE’s attorney, Edmund O’Meally, further stated that the board’s public participation section is a limited public forum as it may adopt reasonable time, place and manner limitations that are both content- and viewpoint-neutral.
“The Board prioritized the topical comments that will be allowed in the limited time period for its public meetings so that current agenda items have first priority, future agenda items have second priority and other matters within the Board’s control have third,” said O’Meally.
The BOE’s decision to remove the updated guideline stems from what they said was another response to members of the public who said that the guidelines were too restrictive.
“While our legal counsel is confident that this is within the Board’s discretion, some community members felt that this was too restrictive,” said the CCBOE. “We therefore decided to modify the process to not require prior submission of public comment.”
The CCBOE also noted that all other participation guidelines will remain in place and that they will continue to investigate ways to ensure that public participation is safe, respectful and productive.
CECIL WHIG CLIP
By Matt Hubbard
