Court rules against Sheridan County School District in parent censorship lawsuit

CASPER, Wyo. — The United States District Court for the District of Wyoming ordered the Sheridan County School District to pay legal fees totaling $156,000 in a lawsuit accusing the district of censoring a parent.

The ruling was announced in a statement from the Institute for Free Speech, which is the litigation team representing Harry Pollak of Sheridan County that took up a case accusing the school district of violating Pollak’s rights for free speech at a public meeting.

According to the release, Pollak filed suit against the school district in March 2022 after he was stopped from speaking critically about the superintendent during a school board meeting. The board cited a policy against discussing “personnel matters” as their reason, and had him escorted out of the building by police.

The district court ruled last fall in favor of Pollak, declaring that the board violated his First Amendment rights and awarded him a symbolic $17.91 in damages, representing the year the First Amendment was ratified. The more recent ruling ordered the district to cover legal fees for Institute for Free Speech Senior Attorney Brett Nolan and local counsel Seth Johnson, the release said.

Nolan said in the release that “it’s unfortunate that the school district’s unlawful conduct will now be settled at taxpayer expense,” adding that “no one should be afraid of listening to someone else’s viewpoint, and hopefully, this outcome will encourage school board officials everywhere to think twice before censoring speech they don’t like.”

Issues regarding public speaking at meetings came up recently during the Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees meeting earlier this month, when Leslie Hall of Casper questioned statements made March 10 by Board Chair Kevin Christopherson regarding the nature of school board meetings as “meetings held in public” rather than “public meetings.”

Hall cited a 2022 U.S. District Court in Wyoming ruling that silencing public comment violates the First Amendment, urging the board to recognize the meetings as public forums where community voices are essential.

“Do you honestly think we will fix our schools by treating public input like an optional favor? I don’t think so, and it’s time to start respecting the public’s role in this process,” Hall said.

Just before the meeting’s end Monday, Christopherson said he misspoke and didn’t mean to say the school board’s meeting was not a public meeting.