First Amendment Under Attack Both in Central and Baton Rouge

By Woody Jenkins, Editor — CENTRAL —Two popular measures — one passed by the Metro Council and another by the Central Community School Board — are well-intentioned attempts to combat real problems but both threaten to infringe on the First Amendment rights of our citizens.

Here in Central, the Central School Board passed new rules cracking down on fighting. In Baton Rouge, the Metro Council passed an ordinance to crack down on drag racing.  So far, so good.

The devil is in the details.

The Central School Board passed a new rule requiring a mandatory 45-day expulsion for “fighting.”  However, “fighting” is not defined and an aggressor and a victim appear to be treated much the same under the rule. Suddenly gone is the great concern about bullying.  Doesn’t it matter in the least who caused the fight and what happened? 

Of even greater concern, the new rule also established a mandatory 10-day expulsion for any student who videos a fight and/or uploads it to social media.

School administrators and school board members were very concerned that videos of a fight at Central High School on May 4 made it to Facebook and gave the school a black eye.

But here’s the thing: Students don’t lose their First Amendment rights when they walk in the schoolhouse door. Parents and the general public have a strong interest in knowing what happens in our schools especially if it involves violence. People can be injured, even killed, when one student attacks another. Why on earth would we want to prevent the gathering of the best possible evidence of what actually happened? A video is the best evidence of who instigated the fight.  Was it a “fight” or an attack by one person or group on another person or group?  The video may tell us.

The new rule goes so far as to say if a student videos a fight or altercation off campus at a football game, that too will result in an automatic 10-day expulsion.  So if we at the Central City News video a fight at a football game, that’s okay but if a student does it, that’s an automatic 10-day explusion!

How the Central School System handled the May 4 incident illustrates the point.  The melee was the talk of Central. It resulted in extensive administrative hearings and a closed door meeting of the school board.  However, as of today, the public has not been given any serious explanation about what happened that day. What was it about?  Who instigated it? What did the hearing disclose?  What was done to the perpetrators, if anything?  Was there justice in the case?

We are told the school has an elaborate video monitoring system, but the public hasn’t seen those videos.  In fact, school board members didn’t get to see them.

We are told it’s against the rules for students to have phones on campus, but that’s not true. The rule is students can’t display their phones.  The very reason they get to have them is for emergencies.

We are told videos instigate fights and that certainty can happen, but the reality is fights happened forever before there were cell phones and will be around long after cell phones are gone. The video remains the best evidence of what happened and is very valuable. 

Days after the Central School Board adopted its new discipline policy, the Metro Council passed an ordinance increasing penalities for drag racing.

However, it went far beyond that.  It also established criminal penalties for watching drag racing. In other words, if you are standing lawfully on a public sidewalk or sitting in a car and people start converging on a parking lot or a street and you stay there and watch what happens or, Lord forbid, video what happens, then that’s a crime!  We’re not talking about cockfighting, where people pay an admission to watch an illegal cockfight.  We’re talking about people going to jail for simply standing in a public place where they have every right to be when drag racing or  stunts are taking place.

Less than two weeks ago, I was near the RaceTrac at the intersection of Greenwell Springs Road at Oak Villa when more than 100 souped up vehicles, motorcycles, dirt bikes, and hot rods suddenly converged on the RaceTrac and the large parking lot behind.  I called 911 and videoed what happened. Many thousands watched that video and became more aware of this menace to our community.  Yet, my staying there and reporting on what happened is a crime under the new ordinance passed by Councilman Rowdy Gaudet and the Metro Council.

Laws, ordinances, and rules should prohibit what is bad, not what is good, and it should do so in a way that is constitutional.  Citizens reporting on fights, drag racing and other dangerous activities is a good thing, and it is protected by the Constitution.

Let’s not continue the mindlessness of the pandemic and think our elected officials can simply pass any unconstitutional thing that comes into their minds.

Our elected officials swear to uphold the Constitution.  They should read the Constitution and study it before they embarrass themselves by trying to infringe on our Constitutional liberties.