Since his appointment to the president’s seat, School Board President, Eric Lawson, has tried a variety of strong-arm tactics meant to suppress public comment at school board meetings. First he stationed Sheriff Deputies at board meetings to forcibly remove attendees who might clap during a meeting. (This story went viral due to the absurdity.) Lawson followed this up with threats of defamation lawsuits should anyone speak the unflattering truth about what board members Costain, Dziesinski, MacArthur and Lawson, himself, are up to.

It has to be an unprecedented and embarrassing first to have a school board president using law enforcement to stifle expression and to follow that up with threats of a defamation lawsuit. The obvious point of all of this is to stop community members from speaking out about rogue board members.

This week, at the January 26th regular board meeting, Lawson issued a new directive prior to public comment time. He requests speakers talk about their own experiences instead of commenting on the actions of individual school board members.

What Lawson fails to see, and fails to understand, is community members who speak at public comment time are talking about their experiences…each and every time. Our experiences with a dysfunctional school board. Our experiences with a school board majority that came to their board positions with personal agendas and goals that do not align with the goals of public education. Our experiences with a school board that has wasted thousands in tax dollars forwarding those misaligned agendas. Our experiences with a school board that does not support our educators or our students. Our experiences with a school board president who uses threats and intimidation as means of control. Our experiences, Mr. Lawson. That’s what we’ve been talking about this entire time. Every time.

Diane O’Connor

Alpena