CCSD Speaker Policy: Progress Made, Concerns Remain

The Clark County School District Board of Trustees has changed its proposed policy on public speaker comments after the ACLU of Nevada sent a letter identifying the parts of a proposed policy that were problematic.

The initial version of the speech policy read:

Public comment, the content of which is irrelevant, beyond the authority of the board, willfully disruptive of the meeting, repetitious, slanderous, offensive, inflammatory, irrational, amounts to personal attacks or interferes with the rights of other speakers, is prohibited.

The vague language of the proposed policy would have given the School District essentially unfettered discretion in determining which comments they would and would not hear from the public. The ACLU of Nevada spoke out against the proposed policy because allowing the Board to exclude speech under such subjective measurements inherently ran the risk of censorship.

A revised proposed  policy was considered at the School Board meeting on November 17. The new proposed policy eliminates much of the problematic language but still allows for the exclusion of speech that is “repetitive” or “irrelevant." While the ACLU of Nevada is pleased that the School Board has taken steps to improve its policy on public comments we are concerned that the policy still includes subjective terms that can be used to censor speakers.

“Who is to decide what is ‘relevant’ or ‘repetitive’?,” asked Maggie McLetchie, Staff Attorney and Southern Program Director for the ACLU of Nevada.  “While CCSD can place time limits on speakers and only permit speakers to address an agenda item once, it cannot equip itself with tools that can be used to censor speakers or insulate the School Board from criticism.”

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