Collier school board sued; Lawsuit says parents’ 1st Amendment violated

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NAPLES, Fla.- Parents say they were cut off and censored at a Collier County School Board meeting. A video has been created poking fun at the meeting and one man is suing the board saying their rules violate a state statute and their First Amendment rights.

The controversy was sparked during a board meeting in January. Parents were addressing the board about censorship of textbooks but the meeting quickly took a different direction.

Less than two months later, a video from the meeting was posted online. It’s gaining traction nationally and locally.

“Hey, everyone, I would like to call to order tonight’s school board meeting,” says board member Kathleen Curatolo on the YouTube video.

The meeting is laced with circus music as you see parent after parent getting interrupted. One mother says “…improperly using” before she is cut off by Curatolo. “Excuse me, you will refer to the issues not people in positions or public employees.”

The video shows parents stumbling through their speeches trying to choose the correct words to say before getting cut off again. There was such outrage after the meeting someone created a video and posted in online.

The clip has collected nearly 40,000 views.

“The response I get is ‘I saw that video and that is crazy what happened to you,’ that is the response,” said Cory Seegmiller.

Seegmiller filed a lawsuit against the board in response to Curatolo’s actions.

WINK News reached out to Curatolo but she refused to return the calls. The Collier County School District contacted WINK News saying Curatolo had “no comment”.

According to the complaint, Curatolo stripped parents of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and violated a state statute.

The lawsuit says in 2010, the school board created a rule stating the public couldn’t direct complaints to specific people. The lawsuit says that is not in compliance with an updated Florida Statute.

“The irony of tonight of the issue of censorship is how much censorship has occurred already by this board tonight,” said one of the parents in the Youtube clip.

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