Verdict in Escambia County Schools book suit: School board not protected
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A federal judge on Wednesday rejected arguments that Escambia County school board members and the superintendent of schools should be barred from testifying about the removal of a book from the school’s library, but said the board could file an amended motion.
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor issued a four-page ruling after lawyers for the school district filed a motion last month for a preliminary injunction to block testimony from board members and Superintendent Keith Leonard in litigation over the removal of the children’s book “And Tango Makes Three.” The district raised a number of arguments, including whether the testimony would be relevant and whether school board members are protected by a concept called “legislative privilege.” Winsor denied the motion Wednesday.
For example, he wrote that the “motives of the board members are not irrelevant. … Escambia says we cannot attribute the motives of an individual member to the entire board. That is true. But the motives of an individual member may be somewhat determinative in determining the motives of the board. Regardless, plaintiffs are demanding testimony from all members. Evidence that all (or even most) members had some sort of unlawful motive would be much more telling.” Winsor also rejected the legislative privilege claim but said the board could file a revised motion on the issue. Winsor wrote that the board attempted to assert legislative privilege in its motion last month.
“The board members could seek to quash the subpoenas (for testimony) on the basis of legislative privilege,” Winsor wrote. “But it is not clear that the board can invoke the privilege itself as a basis for an injunction, particularly without a direct indication that the members wish to invoke the privilege.”
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The book’s co-authors, Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, and a student identified by the initials BG, argue in the lawsuit that the book’s removal violated First Amendment rights. “And Tango Makes Three” tells the story of two male penguins raising a penguin chick at New York’s Central Park Zoo. The lawsuit claims, at least in part, that the book was targeted because it depicts same-sex parents raising a child.
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