Texas fathers sue school district following arrests for speaking at board meetings: 'Our rights were violated'
Categories: US Education News
Two Texas fathers have filed a lawsuit against their local school district after they both were arrested separately for speaking out at board meetings. The men called for accountability Friday after they said their First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated. Dustin Clark told "America’s Newsroom" he and Jeremy Story were separately advocating for student and parental rights and hopes the lawsuit will prevent other parents from being silenced at school board meetings."We saw a ratcheting up of kind of an oppression of some free speech and limiting what we could say," Clark said. Two Texas fathers have filed a lawsuit against their local school district after they both were arrested separately for speaking out at board meetings. The men called for accountability Friday after they said their First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated. Dustin Clark told "America’s Newsroom" he and Jeremy Story were separately advocating for student and parental rights and hopes the lawsuit will prevent other parents from being silenced at school board meetings."We saw a ratcheting up of kind of an oppression of some free speech and limiting what we could say," Clark said. Clark said other community members also brought up "off-topic" issues or spoke when they weren’t supposed to."We were definitely treated much differently," he said. "We firmly believe it was because of the issues and concerns we were raising with the superintendent and some of the school board members."We see the need to stand for students’ rights and parents’ rights," he said. "We believe that you should be able to speak to your school board without threat of being imprisoned."