Liberty's Blog

It amazes me that those whom are charged to educate our children could be so stupid. apparently the GISD thought they could silence the criticism aimed at them buy bullying a small grassroots site that has taken offense on the way GISD does things. The problem is that their technique almost always backfires and never works.

They don't like what has been said about them so they decide to threaten to to use the resources of the school district to sue the offending website. They probably thought a nasty letter from some bigshot lawyer would be enough to silence those who would dare criticize. Obviously they don't understand the web the blogosphere, or even the first amendment. Attempting to shut down criticism through lawyers never works. This is because the press, other bloggers and anyone else on the net will pick up the story. And even more folks will get to read the offending articles. Everyone tends to to forget about the offending article but all remember the bullys that tried to shut down dissenting speech. GISD Watch has this to say about it.

After careful consideration and extensive legal advice, I have decided that our First Amendment right to speak out and question a governmental entity and its individually elected officials and administrators is more important than the personal hardship that a lawsuit may place on my self and my family.

In response to the District’s Demand Letter, I have decided to retain Mr. Tony Buzbee and The Buzbee Law Firm who has enthusiastically agreed to vigorously defend our right to free speech granted to us in The United States Constitution. The children of Galveston and their right to a high quality education are worth fighting for.

GANS will continue to fight against what we believe to be the harmful reconfiguration and the irresponsible closures of elementary schools.

We will continue to examine the management of the district.

We will continue to be a voice for the children, parents and teachers of the Galveston Independent School District.

Today I noticed that Glenn Reynolds blogged about it. Thats a few hundred thousand viewers. GISD Watch is getting all this extra attention. This is not what GISD had in mind I'm sure. All this extra attention is about how stupid GISD trustees are. They just have to be feeling real proud of themselves. In fact they are being forced to do a tactical retreat.

It appeared late Friday that the district was backing down from its threat to sue a parent for defamation.

In a statement issued late Friday afternoon, Superintendent Lynne Cleveland recommended that the district drop all legal action against a Web site it has accused of defamation.

Cleveland said she’s recommending backing off the legal action because she did not want to pull the focus away from the education of children any longer.

“I think I’ve made it very, very clear the reason I’m here is for the students,” she said. “The students have already suffered enough because of other issues out there that don’t pertain to their education, and I’m not going to let that happen to them anymore.”

Tetley said though she’s glad Cleveland has “come to her senses,” the district’s abuse of power is not acceptable.

“They have tried to crush the voice of the parents of this district, and it is inexcusable and illustrates the lack of leadership at the top,” she wrote in a statement. “They have wasted tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money trying to silence honest concerns by the parents of the district. If we felt like the district truly listened to us, we would not have created this Web site.”

Board President David O’Neal said he was not aware of Cleveland’s recommendation late Friday. He said the board would make the final decision.

People in Galveston probably won't remember to much what the original complaints were all about, but they sure will remember that Superintendent Lynne Cleveland of GISD is a litigious censor that would use taxpayer money to shut down criticism. I bet it could cost her some votes. What could they have been thinking?