More Proof The School Board Is Breaking Laws (School Board Members And All Employees Must Read)

Attorney muzzles critics of W.Va. school board
By The Associated Press 03.10.05

LEVELS, W.Va. — Former House of Delegates Education Chairman Jerry Mezzatesta may be the most talked-about man in Hampshire County — but not at meetings of the school board that employs him.
Board attorney Norwood Bentley successfully muzzled people demanding that Mezzatesta be fired from his $60,000 administrative job earlier this week, and Bentley said he's likely to do it again.
Speaking is a privilege offered by the board, not a public right, Bentley argues.
"You can't take an employee of a school board to task in an open session," Bentley told the Associated Press after stopping a handful of residents from identifying Mezzatesta or Superintendent David Friend by name or job title.
"It's not the public's meeting," he said. "It's the school board's meeting."
More than 100 people packed into a school cafeteria on March 7 when resident Robert Lee began calling for Mezzatesta's and Friend's dismissal. Lee and others had signed a list to speak, identifying their topics as required by board rules.
Lee was a few sentences into his written remarks when Bentley intervened, saying Lee couldn't mention specific people in his comments about problems in the district.
When Lee demanded that Friend and Mezzatesta be fired for what he called incompetence, Bentley interrupted again, warning the board it was "a libelous situation."
The decision stunned those who had planned to speak, including resident Jim Hott.
"I think he was probably right in saying the school board could not use names, but he was wrong in telling us what we could say," Hott said. "There's absolutely no reason to have an open meeting if we can't voice our opinions."
The meeting came just days after the state Ethics Commission issued a public reprimand and imposed a $2,000 fine to settle complaints against Mezzatesta, who lost re-election last fall.
Mezzatesta pleaded no contest in December to altering and destroying legislative computer records amid the ethics investigation. He remains under investigation by a special prosecutor in Hampshire County over an affidavit he gave the Ethics Commission last year that said he had not used his legislative position to obtain grants for Hampshire County.
Lew Brewer, executive director of the Ethics Commission, says the rules Bentley set for the board meeting are new to him.
"I've never heard of anybody saying you can't criticize the city manager, you can't criticize the chief of police, you can't criticize the municipal judge in a public meeting," he said. "There is nothing in the Open Meetings Act that deals with what can be said by someone who is signed up to speak at a public meeting."
Bentley cites the laws governing school boards for his actions, and Brewer said he's not an expert in that area.
Liza Cordeiro, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said since the state has not taken over Hampshire County's schools, it can't tell the local board how to run its meetings.
But a lawyer for the West Virginia Press Association calls Bentley's actions "highly questionable" and a possible violation of "the fundamental right of free speech and to redress government."
If the board set a time for public comment during the meeting, "they can't restrict it," Mark Sadd said yesterday. "I think you should be able to address any issue you wish to address ... and they can't do anything about it unless someone is being unruly."
Bentley said he found Lee's comments "nasty" but could not recall specifics.
"I just remember being particularly offended, and not because I have any great love for either of these people," he said. "I was asked there for a number of reasons, one of which was to try to make sure that things didn't get out of hand in the public session."
Lee said his taxes entitle him to a voice.
"The Hampshire County school systems are in a state of emergency. We have problems, and I can't understand why we can't address them and solve them," Lee said.
The state has stripped the district of its accreditation, and a recent audit found numerous violations of law and state board policies by Mezzatesta and others, including the use of grants.
"We're the laughing stock of the state," Lee said. "It's a real shame."
Bentley, however, says taxpayers have other means to express themselves: They can address the board in closed session, write letters or air their grips on newspaper editorial pages.
Bentley said he was also trying to protect the board from becoming party to a defamation lawsuit: "I wanted to make it very clear that the board didn't say go ahead and blast these employees."

Update:
Board of Education rescinds policy muzzling critics
By The Associated Press 03.22.05

AUGUSTA, W.Va. — Dozens of angry bus drivers petitioned the Hampshire County Board of Education to reconsider replacing the transportation director with former House Education Chairman Jerry Mezzatesta, then delivered a thunderous ovation when an activist suggested the former lawmaker be fired.
The board, meanwhile, rescinded its long-standing policy of muzzling Mezzatesta critics at its meetings, announcing it will now abide by a recommendation from the state Ethics Commission.
Two weeks ago, people intent on demanding that Mezzatesta and Superintendent David Friend be fired were stopped by board attorney Norwood Bentley. He told the speakers they could not identify district employees by name or job title, then criticize them in an open forum.
Many residents complained that infringed on their First Amendment right to free speech, and board President Brenda Pyles began last night's public comment session by announcing new rules.
The public may comment on employees and their conduct, as long as the remarks are not defamatory or slanderous, she said. Pyles said she would decide when a speaker crossed the line.
Pyles said the board had sought guidance from Ethics Commission Director Lew Brewer since the last meeting, and she reviewed her statement with him before last night's meeting. Brewer also advised the board to put its policy on public comment in writing, she said.
Mezzatesta, a nine-term Democrat, lost re-election last year after he became the target of an ethics investigation.
The Ethics Commission has since issued a public reprimand and imposed a $2,000 fine to settle complaints against him. His case helped prompt Gov. Joe Manchin's efforts to toughen West Virginia's ethics law.
Last week, transportation director David Fritsch was notified he would lose his job to Mezzatesta, whose $60,000-a-year job as a community specialist is being eliminated.
A letter from Assistant Superintendent Paula O'Brien told Fritsch he would be transferred to another job for the 2005-'06 school year. Personnel rules automatically bump Fritsch into the next-senior administrator's position he is certified for, special education director.
Fritsch has requested a hearing with the board March 31 and has told the Associated Press he intends for it to be conducted in public.
Fritsch said he was gratified by the strong showing from the drivers and downplayed their praise for his leadership, saying, "it's been a team effort."
Some 38 drivers were in an audience of about 100 at the Augusta Elementary School as Sandy McCune, a spokeswoman for the service personnel, presented the petition. Signed by 55 drivers, substitutes, mechanics and secretaries, it asks the board to retain Fritsch.
McCune and driver James See were careful to avoid attacking Mezzatesta but praised Fritsch as a caring, dedicated supervisor who became licensed and learned to drive the school buses, then rode every route.
"We don't want to lose him," McCune said. "Please reconsider what you're doing."
See praised Fritsch for his accessibility and demeanor.
"We are very proud of the job he's done the first two years, and we need and want him in our working family for years to come," he said. "Do the right thing."
See was among the first to his feet when Wanda Carney of the education-watchdog group West Virginia Wants to Know urged Hampshire residents to keep attending meetings and demanding action on the man at the center of a scandal that has embarrassed the community.
"You pay Mr. Mezzatesta's salary. You pay Mr. Friend's salary. You have a right to ask these elected officials to fire these two men," said Carney, a Kanawha County resident whose group filed the first ethics complaint against Mezzatesta.
Mezzatesta pleaded no contest in Kanawha County Magistrate Court in December to altering and destroying legislative computer records amid the ethics probe. He is under investigation by a special prosecutor in Hampshire County concerning whether an affidavit that he gave to the Ethics Commission last year was false.
Mezzatesta has declined to discuss his job status and took his family on a vacation out of state this week.
A recent audit by the state Office of Education Performance Audits was highly critical of the county's hiring procedures. The audit prompted the state Board of Education to strip Hampshire of its accreditation and declare a state of emergency.
Carney said she believes the local board will never act against Mezzatesta but the state will take over the troubled district in April, "and they will do this task for you."

Federal judge nixes school board's no-negativity rule
By The Associated Press 08.18.04

MOUNDS, Okla. — A federal judge has chosen freedom of speech over freedom from negativity.
U.S. District Judge Claire V. Eagan issued a consent decree that overturned a rule barring those attending Mounds school board meetings from making comments against district policy or employees.
"You could say all the positive things you wanted," attorney Loren Gibson said. "Once you said something negative, it was 'sit down and shut up or we'll call the police.'"
Gibson's client, Cheryl Speers, filed a lawsuit alleging the board's restrictions on what could be said at meetings were unconstitutional infringements on free speech.
"The board will not permit verbal attacks on any school personnel, nor discuss individuals by name, nor permit slanderous remarks against any such individual," the policy read.
The board president could stop someone's address to the board "if the speaker's comments are slanderous, defaming, or may otherwise have a negative impact on the employment status of an employee of good standing or reputation of a student."
Speers, the parent of a special education student, asked to meet privately with the board in executive session to discuss what she said was a special education teacher's refusal to test her son for dyslexia.
She was turned down, then got a spot on the board's agenda, Gibson said.
As she outlined her complaint against the teacher and others, she was told to stop and then was escorted out by a police officer, Gibson said.
Current Board President Ray Driskell said the policy was intended to prevent speakers from slandering teachers and administrators.
"It did allow what we would call constructive criticism," he said.
The consent order, issued in late July, said the district must make a new policy that "shall not limit or prohibit the right of participants in the School Board meetings from making statements that are critical of District policies."
Driskell said the old rule was written by a company that helps create such policies for many schools.

More case click on link: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/personal/topic.aspx?topic=speaking_meetings.

SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS MUST READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!