Board softens sidewalk speech stance
Columbus City Schools principals and security staffers over the years have attempted to order people — including the news media — off city sidewalks in front of schools, even though it’s not district property.
Now, a proposed change to board policy would clarify that district officials have no authority to interfere with peaceful “free speech” activities that take place on the sidewalk.
“The Board of Education acknowledges the rights of all people in a democratic society to speak out on issues of public concern,” the new policy states. “The board further recognizes that a public right of way (e.g., a public sidewalk) constitutes a public forum and does not constitute school property.”
School officials should not impede any activity that takes place on the sidewalk or any other off-district locations unless they constitute a “true threat,” materially disrupt the school setting or interfere with student discipline or the rights of others, the proposed policy says.
Board member Eric Brown, who is leading a committee recommending changes to the board policies, said last week that the new policy stems from two incidents last year in which a principal told people handing out leaflets outside a district school building to leave or district security guards would be called.
“It rose to a misunderstanding,” Brown said.
Ruth Colker, a professor of constitutional law at Ohio State University, told the school board during a meeting in April 2017 that, in her opinion, the principal violated the free-speech rights of the people passing out the leaflets by threatening to involve district security. Colker cited a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case, Grayned v. City of Rockford, in which the court held that “the public sidewalk adjacent to school grounds may not be declared off-limits for expressive activity by members of the public.”
The fliers in the Columbus incident were in Spanish and dealt with immigration rights. The people passing them out weren’t interfering with traffic, distributing offensive material or putting public safety at risk — in short, they weren’t doing anything that was the district’s concern, Colker said.
Brown said the new policy is in response to Colker urging the school board to develop a “constitutional policy” that doesn’t disrupt the right to communicate on matters of public concern outside schools.
The policy change is one of dozens given a first reading by the board at a meeting this week, clearing the way for potential passage at its next meeting, on Aug. 21. The board gave a first reading last Tuesday to 38 pages of proposed changes to the board’s official policy manual.
Most of the changes are inconsequential.
Some make simple changes to words reflecting changing terminology, such as removing “illegal aliens” from the list of children entitled to free educational services and replacing it with “undocumented resident aliens.”
But many of the changes are to keep on top of new state laws, such as a requirement slipped into the last state budget bill adding betel nut to the list of drugs forbidden at school, including alcohol, anabolic steroids and prescription drugs that a student hasn’t been granted approval to use.
Betel nut “is a stimulant that is used like chewing tobacco and produces a strong caffeine-like effect,” said Erik Roush, the district’s government-affairs supervisor. “It is sold as a separate chewing product or combined with chewing tobacco.”
The state budget bill “contains a prohibition on students possessing or using betel nut at school, on school property, and at any school-sponsored event,” Roush said.