Marion resident drops lawsuit against Linn-Mar schools

MARION — A Marion resident has dropped the lawsuit she filed last year against the Linn-Mar Community School District after being banned from school board meetings for 12 months.

The ban — which was lifted by the school district shortly after the lawsuit was filed last fall — would have expired in September.

Amanda Pierce Snyder, who lives in the Linn-Mar district, was removed from a school board meeting Aug. 29, 2022, after she interrupted board members’ discussion and was asked to stop speaking by the board president. The board had been discussing parental choice issues.

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When Snyder didn’t stop speaking, school board President Brittania Morey asked the Marion police officer at the meeting to remove Snyder from the room.

The public, by Iowa law, is allowed to speak only during designated public comment periods.

The lawsuit, filed in Linn County District Court, also named then-Superintendent Shannon Bisgard and school board president Brittania Morey. It was dismissed June 28, according to court documents.

Alan Ostergren, Snyder’s lawyer, said the district paid $4,000 of Snyder’s attorney fees.

“I think it’s obvious that it wasn’t tenable,” Ostergren said about the ban. “You can’t ban somebody because they one time spoke out in a meeting out of turn. They don’t have the right to do that.”

What happened?

Snyder received a letter from former Linn-Mar Superintendent Shannon Bisgard and Morey on an Aug. 31, 2022, informing her she had violated board policy related to the conduct of visitors to the schools and the board policy on public participation in board meetings.

Bisgard retired June 30, and was replaced as superintendent by Amy Kortemeyer.

The letter stated Snyder was banned from attending in-person school board meetings for the next 12 months because of her “disruptive and disrespectful behavior,” according to the lawsuit.

The letter also said Snyder could communicate with the board by writing Morey, who would distribute her comments to the board.

Snyder argued in the lawsuit that nothing in board policy authorizes district officials or school board members to ban people from attending future public board meetings. Board policies also do not define what interruptions of board business is inappropriate, according to the suit.

Board policy 204.9 does authorize the board president to “terminate the speaker’s comments if, after being called to order, they persist with improper conduct or remarks. If deemed disruptive, the individual causing the disruption will be asked to leave the meeting.”

The letter to Snyder also stated Marion police had been informed of the suspension. Snyder “understands this threat to mean that she could be arrested if she were to attempt to attend a board meeting before September 2023,” according to the lawsuit.

In her original lawsuit, Snyder stated that she would not risk arrest by attending meetings in the next 12 months. She also stated that any future comments she made would be during the designated public comment time.

The lawsuit asked the court to rule that banning Snyder from board meetings is illegal and cannot be enforced. It sought to have the district penalized for violating Iowa law and fined $1,000 to $2,500 per meeting Snyder couldn’t attend. It sought the removal of Morey from the president’s role if she again violated Iowa Code during her term and asked that the district pay Snyder’s attorney fees and court costs.

The Linn-Mar Community School District did not respond to request for comment by deadline.

Cedar Rapids resident’s suit continues

Attorney Alan Ostergren, also is representing Cedar Rapids resident Russell Hotchkiss who sued Cedar Rapids schools and former Superintendent Noreen Bush after he was banned from Cedar Rapids Community School District property for “disruptive and threatening behavior.”

Hotchkiss spoke for more than 30 minutes during a school board meeting Dec. 13, 2021, pleading for a mask mandate to be removed, threatening a lawsuit and asking for school board members’ resignations. Hotchkiss’ child was in first grade at Hiawatha Elementary School in the Cedar Rapids district at the time.

A U.S. District Court on Friday denied a preliminary injunction requested by Hotchkiss. The injunction was denied because the court found it in the public interest to ensure the school district can conduct “orderly, efficient and effective meetings free from the fear of violence, from the disruption that fer engenders and from the possibility that the threatened violence will occur,” according to court documents filed July 21.

During the December 2021 meeting, a group of parents yielded their five-minute public comment periods to Hotchkiss. Speakers are no longer allowed to yield their time to other speakers who signed up for public comment, Cedar Rapids school board President David Tominsky says at each meeting.

But at no time during this meeting did any board member or district employee indicate that the practice of one speaker yielding time to another was not permitted, according to the lawsuit.

In court documents, Tominsky said he feared the Dec. 13 meeting could have turned violent.

The lawsuit, filed in Linn County District Court and since moved to federal court, names new Cedar Rapids schools Superintendent Tawana Grover, school board members Jennifer Borcherding, Cindy Garlock, Nancy Humbles, Dexter Merschbrock, Jennifer Neumann, Marcy Roundtree and David Tominsky, and Russ Bush, husband to Noreen Bush.

Noreen Bush died Oct. 23, 2022, more than two and a half years after being diagnosed with cancer.

In the lawsuit, Hotchkiss asks for a jury trial. He also asks the court to rule that banning him from school board meetings is illegal and cannot be enforced.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com