Federal jury rules against D-49: Speech rights violated in school board crackdown

By Eric Young | Denver Gazette

The public conflict that escalated into a legal challenge between current and former board members of School District 49 reached a verdict on Thursday, which found that its board president had violated constitutional rights during a public meeting.

Deb Schmidt and Kelly Kohls filed a federal lawsuit against the school district shortly after they were removed from a February 2023 board meeting for holding up signs calling for the resignations of three sitting Board of Education members.

Then-board President John Graham paused the meeting to tell the two that they violated decorum and gave them the option to either put their signs down or leave, otherwise police would be called.

When they refused, Graham again halted the meeting to go into recess and have security remove the two from the building. Schmidt and Kohls alleged that they had suffered “injury and damages in having their core political speech stifled and censored” and deprived of their rights under the First and 14th Amendments of the Constitution.

A jury for the U.S. District Court for Colorado unanimously agreed that Graham had taken actions against Schmidt and Kohls based upon the viewpoints expressed on their signs, that he had deprived them of their First Amendment rights, and that this deprivation stemmed from a board policy or practice.

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