TRENTON, N.J.—An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney Monday asked a federal court to order the Asbury Park Board of Education to respect the free speech rights of citizens who were critical of the board for appointing as president the former manager of a sexually explicit club.
The club promoted lewdness on a Web site accessible to all members of the general public, including children in the school district. The president refused to allow members of the public to speak at board meetings who wished to express disapproval over his appointment.
“A school board president has no right to create a petty dictatorship,” said ADF-allied attorney Dennis Caufield. “Everyone agrees that members of the community should have a voice in determining policy for taxpayer-funded public education. The board president cannot abuse his position of power to shut down the free speech of the community.”
Two community members, one a member of the Asbury Park Parent-Teacher-Student Organization and the other a high school teacher who is president of the Asbury Park Improvement Association, were told they could not read prepared statements critical of the appointment of Robert DiSanto at board meetings in the fall of last year.
The citizens were concerned because DiSanto had been general manager of Club Paradise, a night club that advertised “hot-hot go-go boys” at the club and promoted “sexware” parties, porn stars, wet underwear contests, and sexually themed movies, including one for which the club encouraged customers to “be prepared…to drool over the gorgeous boys.”
Brochures for the club appearing on its Web site featured an introductory column by DiSanto with the signature of his first name along with his picture. In one photo that appeared on the site, DiSanto was clad in a leather harness and leather pants. He managed the club for a 4 1/2-year period ending in September of last year.
Asbury Park board bylaws give the presiding officer, who is the board president, the sole discretion to terminate speech that he thinks is personally directed. The motion for preliminary injunction filed today asks the court to prohibit the board from enforcing this policy.
“The school board president’s judgment and character is a legitimate question for the community to address,” explained ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer. “Our clients sought to discuss his fitness to fill a position dedicated to serving the interests of the community’s children. If Mr. DiSanto does not want to be subject to public scrutiny or accountability, he ought to leave public service. But his censoring of the speech of concerned members of the community is not a proper, or constitutional, use of his position.”
The full text of the motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in the case,
Moore v. The Asbury Park Board of Education, can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/MoorePImemo.pdf. The complaint filed June 9 can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/MooreComplaint.pdf.
ADF is America’s largest legal alliance defending religious liberty through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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