New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Sarah Welsh attended last night's school board meeting to encourage the board not to adopt an unconstitutional policy.---
Welsh previously put the board "on notice" that its silencing of parent Cate Moses at a June 21 BoE meeting stepped on Moses' First Amendment rights. At last night's meeting, she said one of three proposed public comment policies was unconstitutional and would "discourage this kind of public input" by restricting speech based on its content. Under that policy, members of the public could even be physically removed if they veered into disallowed comment territory.
"Getting up here is scary enough without worrying that I'm going to be gaveled down," Welsh said.
Moses also spoke, noting that it is free speech week.
"[Under one proposed policy] speakers will be removed by hired goons if we dare to speak on disallowed topics," Moses said. "Happy free speech week folks!"
League of Women Voters president Judy Williams also spoke out in favor of an unrestricted public forum, saying Ortiz' proposed policy would be "progress in the wrong direction." She encouraged the board to "let people say what they want to say."
"Policies like [Ortiz'] are not designed to encourage public input," Welsh writes in an email. "Quite the opposite—if people feel that they might be shouted down at a meeting, which is surely a humiliating experience, then they will simply stay silent."
BoE Secretary Linda Trujillo distanced herself from one version of the policy that had been attributed to her, but said she believes there is case law allowing a limited public forum. Ortiz began his remarks by asserting that "There is nothing [in law] that requires this board put [public forum] on the agenda," and described hypothetical scenarios where public comments could be problematic.
"I have very strong concerns about protecting the children and children being named in a public forum," BoE president Barbara Gudwin said in defense of a restrictive policy. Such an incident has not happened at a BoE meeting in recent memory, as Carrillo then pointed out.
