Leroy N. Soetoro
2022-05-12 22:11:21 UTC
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-dads-arrested-school-board-meetings-sue-
district-violating-free-speech
FIRST ON FOX Two Texas fathers who were arrested for allegedly
disturbing meetings of the Round Rock Independent School District school
board have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the district and its agents
violated their rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution.
"The overall trend is basically a conspiracy among many of them to remove
and restrain the civil rights of citizens whom they disagree with," one of
the arrested fathers, Jeremy Story, told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
"They ultimately have gone to great lengths to silence parents who
disagree with them and ultimately to conceal their own malfeasance."
In the lawsuit, Story and Dustin Clark claimed the school district, five
members of the board of trustees, Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez and members
of the school district police force violated their rights under the First
Amendment, the 14th Amendment and 42 U.S. Code 1983. They claimed the
school board acted illegally in hiring Azaiez, in passing a tax increase
and in arranging for their arrests.
Clark is a father of four children in RRISD schools. Story is a father of
seven children who lives in the district but whose children attend school
outside it.
TEXAS SCHOOL BOARD REINSTATES SCANDAL-RIDDEN SUPERINTENDENT
The fathers alleged that the defendants violated their rights to petition
the government for redress and violated their rights to exercise free
speech without retaliation.
They also claimed the defendants violated their rights to due process by
arbitrarily arresting them or having them arrested without probable cause,
among other allegations. The suit also claimed the board of trustees
"failed to operate openly, and violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by
deliberating in secret and deciding that Azaiez should be hired in a later
sham vote."
In the lawsuit, Story and Clark demanded a temporary restraining order and
court injunctions to prevent the defendants from enforcing "arbitrary
spacing rules at board meetings using the Limited Public Comment and
pretextual COVID-19 seating rule to limit criticism." The proposed order
would also void the contract between RRISD and Azaiez.
Jenny LaCoste-Caputo, a spokeswoman for the school district, said it had
not yet been served with the suit and declined comment. None of the other
defendants responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
The scandal and the arrests
The lawsuit centered on the arrests of Story and Clark on Sept. 17, 2021,
on one misdemeanor charge each of hindering proceedings by disorderly
conduct. The lawsuit called the charges "false" and "trumped-up," claiming
they "did not constitute a basis for arrest because Plaintiffs were simply
exercising their constitutional right to participate in the board
meeting."
The charge against Story traced back to a board meeting on Aug. 16, 2021,
in which Story attempted to voice concerns about Azaiez, whom the district
recently had hired. The district temporarily suspended Azaiez in January
2022, after the Texas Education Agency recommended suspension due to
accusations the superintendent faced from his former girlfriend. (The
district reinstated him in March.)
The Travis County District Court previously provided Fox News with an
application for a protective order against Azaiez. In that document, a
woman who identified herself as Azaiez's girlfriend from September 2018 to
December 2020 and then from February 2021 to June 2021 claimed that when
she told Azaiez she was pregnant with his child, he demanded that she get
an abortion, and when she refused, he assaulted her in her home, which put
her in danger of a miscarriage.
TEXAS SUPERINTENDENT ALLEGEDLY DEMANDED HIS EX-MISTRESS GET AN ABORTION,
ASSAULTED HER, COURT DOC SHOWS
Mary Nix, the attorney representing Azaiez, noted that "all applications
for protective orders, including the one to which you refer, contain
allegations which are unproven and are not facts. As I succinctly
stated in a January 5, 2022 press release, we have objective evidence that
the alleged assault, which is the genesis of this controversy, did not
occur and we believe that evidence to be incontrovertible." In her Jan. 5,
2022, press release, Nix wrote that "the personal dispute between Dr.
Azaiez and the third-party complainant was amicably resolved and there is
a confidential settlement agreement. An agreed-upon civil restraining
order was entered into by and between Dr. Azaiez and the complainant."
During the Aug. 16 meeting, then-board President Amy Weir cut Story off,
warning him not to speak about a topic unrelated to the meeting's agenda.
Story had referred to a "protective order" against Azaiez, and RRISD
police escorted him out of the meeting.
Weir previously told Fox News that "there has never been an attempt to
silence Mr. Story." She noted that, as per normal procedure, Story wrote
on a card indicating what he would say at the meeting, and he wrote that
"unlike the board, citizens are not required to speak on items on the
agenda," thus indicating that "he was planning to speak on a topic not
listed for the meeting," Weir said.
LaCoste-Caputo said, "At no time were speakers not allowed to speak in
accordance with state law and board policy at a Round Rock ISD board
meeting."
TEXAS DADS ARRESTED AFTER GETTING VOCAL AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS SAY
SUPERINTENDENT AIMS TO SILENCE THEM
The charges against Clark traced to a Sept. 14, 2021, school board meeting
in which RRISD set up 18 chairs in a room that accommodated 300 people and
prevented members of the public from entering. "These actions seemed to be
an effort to intimidate parents and control the optics by arbitrarily
restricting the capacity of parents and community members allowed in the
boardroom," Clark previously told Fox News Digital.
The school board passed a tax increase at that meeting, an increase that
the lawsuit claimed was illegal.
Clark spoke up at that meeting before police removed him; they arrested
him three days later.
"Mr. Clark came into the board room after seating capacity limits had been
met, and was escorted out after he continued to shout at board members and
other attendees, interrupting the boards discussion and a public speaker
whose turn it was to address the board," Weir previously told Fox News
regarding the incident.
LaCoste-Caputo noted that the district had an overflow room where members
of the public could watch the proceedings on a screen.
A landmark case
Story told Fox News Digital on Thursday he hoped the lawsuit will become
"a landmark case to reverse the loss of parental rights across the country
and to give parents a voice back in their kids' education."
"We want our public education system to simply educate our children and
when we send our children to the public school, we are not submitting to
be co-parents with the federal government," he added.
--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: ***@mail.house.gov
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
district-violating-free-speech
FIRST ON FOX Two Texas fathers who were arrested for allegedly
disturbing meetings of the Round Rock Independent School District school
board have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the district and its agents
violated their rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution.
"The overall trend is basically a conspiracy among many of them to remove
and restrain the civil rights of citizens whom they disagree with," one of
the arrested fathers, Jeremy Story, told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
"They ultimately have gone to great lengths to silence parents who
disagree with them and ultimately to conceal their own malfeasance."
In the lawsuit, Story and Dustin Clark claimed the school district, five
members of the board of trustees, Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez and members
of the school district police force violated their rights under the First
Amendment, the 14th Amendment and 42 U.S. Code 1983. They claimed the
school board acted illegally in hiring Azaiez, in passing a tax increase
and in arranging for their arrests.
Clark is a father of four children in RRISD schools. Story is a father of
seven children who lives in the district but whose children attend school
outside it.
TEXAS SCHOOL BOARD REINSTATES SCANDAL-RIDDEN SUPERINTENDENT
The fathers alleged that the defendants violated their rights to petition
the government for redress and violated their rights to exercise free
speech without retaliation.
They also claimed the defendants violated their rights to due process by
arbitrarily arresting them or having them arrested without probable cause,
among other allegations. The suit also claimed the board of trustees
"failed to operate openly, and violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by
deliberating in secret and deciding that Azaiez should be hired in a later
sham vote."
In the lawsuit, Story and Clark demanded a temporary restraining order and
court injunctions to prevent the defendants from enforcing "arbitrary
spacing rules at board meetings using the Limited Public Comment and
pretextual COVID-19 seating rule to limit criticism." The proposed order
would also void the contract between RRISD and Azaiez.
Jenny LaCoste-Caputo, a spokeswoman for the school district, said it had
not yet been served with the suit and declined comment. None of the other
defendants responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
The scandal and the arrests
The lawsuit centered on the arrests of Story and Clark on Sept. 17, 2021,
on one misdemeanor charge each of hindering proceedings by disorderly
conduct. The lawsuit called the charges "false" and "trumped-up," claiming
they "did not constitute a basis for arrest because Plaintiffs were simply
exercising their constitutional right to participate in the board
meeting."
The charge against Story traced back to a board meeting on Aug. 16, 2021,
in which Story attempted to voice concerns about Azaiez, whom the district
recently had hired. The district temporarily suspended Azaiez in January
2022, after the Texas Education Agency recommended suspension due to
accusations the superintendent faced from his former girlfriend. (The
district reinstated him in March.)
The Travis County District Court previously provided Fox News with an
application for a protective order against Azaiez. In that document, a
woman who identified herself as Azaiez's girlfriend from September 2018 to
December 2020 and then from February 2021 to June 2021 claimed that when
she told Azaiez she was pregnant with his child, he demanded that she get
an abortion, and when she refused, he assaulted her in her home, which put
her in danger of a miscarriage.
TEXAS SUPERINTENDENT ALLEGEDLY DEMANDED HIS EX-MISTRESS GET AN ABORTION,
ASSAULTED HER, COURT DOC SHOWS
Mary Nix, the attorney representing Azaiez, noted that "all applications
for protective orders, including the one to which you refer, contain
allegations which are unproven and are not facts. As I succinctly
stated in a January 5, 2022 press release, we have objective evidence that
the alleged assault, which is the genesis of this controversy, did not
occur and we believe that evidence to be incontrovertible." In her Jan. 5,
2022, press release, Nix wrote that "the personal dispute between Dr.
Azaiez and the third-party complainant was amicably resolved and there is
a confidential settlement agreement. An agreed-upon civil restraining
order was entered into by and between Dr. Azaiez and the complainant."
During the Aug. 16 meeting, then-board President Amy Weir cut Story off,
warning him not to speak about a topic unrelated to the meeting's agenda.
Story had referred to a "protective order" against Azaiez, and RRISD
police escorted him out of the meeting.
Weir previously told Fox News that "there has never been an attempt to
silence Mr. Story." She noted that, as per normal procedure, Story wrote
on a card indicating what he would say at the meeting, and he wrote that
"unlike the board, citizens are not required to speak on items on the
agenda," thus indicating that "he was planning to speak on a topic not
listed for the meeting," Weir said.
LaCoste-Caputo said, "At no time were speakers not allowed to speak in
accordance with state law and board policy at a Round Rock ISD board
meeting."
TEXAS DADS ARRESTED AFTER GETTING VOCAL AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS SAY
SUPERINTENDENT AIMS TO SILENCE THEM
The charges against Clark traced to a Sept. 14, 2021, school board meeting
in which RRISD set up 18 chairs in a room that accommodated 300 people and
prevented members of the public from entering. "These actions seemed to be
an effort to intimidate parents and control the optics by arbitrarily
restricting the capacity of parents and community members allowed in the
boardroom," Clark previously told Fox News Digital.
The school board passed a tax increase at that meeting, an increase that
the lawsuit claimed was illegal.
Clark spoke up at that meeting before police removed him; they arrested
him three days later.
"Mr. Clark came into the board room after seating capacity limits had been
met, and was escorted out after he continued to shout at board members and
other attendees, interrupting the boards discussion and a public speaker
whose turn it was to address the board," Weir previously told Fox News
regarding the incident.
LaCoste-Caputo noted that the district had an overflow room where members
of the public could watch the proceedings on a screen.
A landmark case
Story told Fox News Digital on Thursday he hoped the lawsuit will become
"a landmark case to reverse the loss of parental rights across the country
and to give parents a voice back in their kids' education."
"We want our public education system to simply educate our children and
when we send our children to the public school, we are not submitting to
be co-parents with the federal government," he added.
--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: ***@mail.house.gov
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.