Getting up in front of a school board meeting and saying you object to vaccine and mask requirements is free speech.
Peacefully marching with signs in front of a school district administration office is protest.
The following is NOT free speech of protest:
- dumping chemicals on a school board member’s lawn to kill the grass to spell out the words “F— Y–“
- surrounding her house and shouting “demeaning words” to her and her neighbors
- coughing in her face while another protestor shouts, “Give her the Covid”
- making “credible threats of violence” against her and her family
- falsely reporting her to police as a child abuser
Read story here.
Disrupting school board meetings to prevent them from conducting business isn’t free speech or protest, either. It’s interfering with governmental operations.
Obviously, not all parents and other community members who object to school mandates are like this. But this is how they’ll be stereotyped by those who are. Whatever legitimate objections they have are being drowned out by the behavior of this nature. The bullies and thugs among them ensure they’ll all be branded and stereotyped as rogue troublemakers.