New Hampshire – (ECWd)
Many may recall the national coverage of the father who was arrested at his local school board meeting for violating a 2 minute rule when he expressed his concern of the content of a book reading requirement. As most in this country, we were appalled, and so was the judge!
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A judge in New Hampshire’s 4th Circuit Court blasted a school board for “silencing” a concerned parent who exposed an objectionable reading assignment given to his teen daughter.
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William Baer was handcuffed and escorted out of a school board meeting May 6th after refusing to comply with the board’s two-minute rule. He was voicing concern about “Nineteen Minutes,” a book required for his daughter’s high school honors reading class that he compared to a “transcript for a triple-X-rated movie.”
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In dismissing charges against Baer, Judge James M. Carroll said the court “does agree with the defendant’s argument that, often in an official meeting or at the court, for that matter, individuals, from time to time, may be disruptive, but the disruptiveness should not be cause for an arrest in the first instance.”
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“The sequence of the arrest actions cause pause by the court as to the chilling, if not silencing of a citizen by the state, for actions which do not warrant a criminal arrest nor conviction. The court finds that the actions for ‘order’ by the state do not ‘balance,’ in the facts of this particular case, the speech rights of the defendant.”
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Read the full story found at this link – Judge Blasts School Board
