Free Speech challenged at USD 497 School Board Meeting
Article - 5 minute read
Updated 07/15/2022
On Monday, July 11, Lawrence local Michael Eravi went to District HQ to speak at the school board meeting. The day prior, Eravi had interviewed Republican candidate for Douglas County District 1 Dr. Justin Spiehs through a livestream on his YouTube channel Lawrence Accountability. Eravi, who is a communist, does not support many of Dr. Spiehs’ Republican conservative ideas and does not wish to be thought of as someone who is linked to Dr. Spiehs and his campaign. Nevertheless, during the interview, Dr. Spiehs made mention on his 90 day ban from the school due to a speech, that he described as a “fictional story.” He gave the speech at the school board meeting back on May 23 of this year. This raised a question during the interview of whether it was the words or the person that prompted the ban.
“Back in October I got banned from all USD 497 school district property because I wasn’t able to wear a mask inside LHS,” Dr. Spiehs said. “So, superintendent Anthony Lewis permanently banned me from all school property. That’s the reason I switched over to speaking purely online at the schoolboard meetings. I wasn’t allowed to go on the property and I haven’t been since October. Once I got online there, there were multiple times they would hang up on me if they didn’t like what I was saying. So, multiple times they would do that…. Because of that, I was trying to figure out a way I could communicate what I was trying to communicate without getting hung up on. So, I wrote this fictional story.”
Dr. Spiehs had written a character named Lewis Anthony in the story, referring to superintendent Anthony Lewis. He was only able to get a little ways before being hung up on. So, he took all names out of the story and read the whole thing two weeks later. A couple days later, Dr. Spiehs said he got an email with a letter from the USD 497 school district attorney represented by Stevens and Brand LLP, hitting him with a 90 day ban after repeated incidents of violating policy. Dr. Spiehs said he wrote back asking what alleged policies he violated and the dates. The attorney messaged Dr. Spiehs’ attorney who also inquired about policies and dates. They received a copy and paste of the opening statement the schoolboard president reads before every general comment.
Eravi prefaced his speech to the school board by saying, “I think the board needs to remember the Constitution and the rights that we have as Americans to speak. I’m going to ask you guys if it’s the person or the words. That’s an important question that we need to clarify.”
Eravi then began to give the speech that got Dr. Spiehs banned from the school. “Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a school superintendent who was determined to run his school into the ground….”
This was as far as he got with the speech before being interrupted by school board member Shannon Kimball. “Michael. Michael. I appreciate that you are here, but we have had this conversation with the person whose words you’re reading, and we have advised that person that that is not a fictional story. It refers to information that is factual of a nature that relates to personnel issues.”
Kimball said they could move it into executive session if Eravi would like to further speak with the board on his public comment. An executive session, as Kimball explained is “when a public commentor wants to speak to something that is related to a student or a staff person in particular.” Eravi would be given three minutes in executive session to give his comment.
Eravi confirmed with Kimball that there would be no conversation in executive session, just him giving the speech. He raised the inquiry of it being the words that are being prevented, to which Kimball immediately denied, but also confirmed by saying, “It is not. It is because it is comment that is being made that is being directed at a particular staff person that has to do with the details of their employment by the district. Yes. We have been very clear all along. That is the reason it is not allowed.”
The school board, which is made up of Carole Cadue-Blackwood, Kay Emerson, Erica Hill, Kelly Jones, Shannon Kimball, Andrew Nussbaum, Paula Smith, and Superintendent Dr. Anthony Lewis, would go on to talk about other issues, including “our democracy being under attack.” They also brought up “extremists” prior to shutting down Eravi for speaking.
It should be of interest to note that the U.S. has the Constitution so that people can speak up in public comment about their leaders regarding any issue. School boards, which are made up of elected officials, do not have any special rights that keep them from such comments. That is the difference between U.S. elected leaders and royal elites in other countries. However, the USD 497 school board has made rules to shield them from, as Kimball put it, “information that is factual of a nature that relates to personnel issues.”
Dr. Spiehs, however, will be able to speak at the meetings again on September 1. A video of the Eravi’s interaction with the school board can be found on his YouTube channel here.