Florida school districts and state lawmakers are poised to square off in the new year over whether to restrict public comments at school board meetings in the wake of threats and verbal attacks over mask mandates.
Palm Beach County School Board members have proposed altering the guidelines for public comments at board meetings so that speakers cannot direct “personal attacks” at individual board members, superintendents or district employees. Open government groups have expressed concern about such rule changes violating constitutional protections, but the Florida School Boards Association emphasized the need for boards to complete their business in an efficient manner.
“The meetings of the school board, which are open to the public, held in public and provide an opportunity for the public to speak, must also provide for the business of the district to be conducted,” Andrea Messina, the FSBA’s executive director, told the Florida Record in an email. “Many times there are time-sensitive items, like contracts, with deadlines that have to be met.”
School boards seek to ensure decorum at board meetings through public comment policies, Messina said.
“School boards have long held the expectation that public comments be civil and address the issues and items on the agenda of the meeting,” she said. “A personal attack on any employee is inappropriate during a meeting for a multitude of reasons.”
Palm Beach County and other Florida school districts institute parameters on public comment in a similar manner as committees of the state legislature and work to ensure the policies don’t break the law, according to Messina.
“When boards create any new policy, they run it through their legal departments to ensure it complies with state and constitutional law,” she said.
State Sen.Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota), however, has introduced legislation to counter school districts from placing overly restrictive public comment policies in place. His bill, SB 1300, would assure parents have the right to address school board meetings and to criticize individual board members, provided the speaker maintains “orderly conduct.”
School boards generally would have to record their meetings on video and live-stream the meetings to websites that community members could access, according to the text of the bill.