Was Davis school board right to walk out when woman stripped to bikini as protest?
A legal expert questioned the authority of a Davis school board that halted the public comment of a woman who stripped down to her bikini to protest a policy related to transgender students.
“It’s admittedly unusual, perhaps, to express oneself during public comment by stripping down to their bikini,” said David Loy, the legal director for the First Amendment Coalition. “But that alone shouldn’t be considered a sufficient disruption to justify limiting the person’s right to public comment.”
Beth Bourne, a protestor who regularly arrives at government meetings, removed her shirt and pants Thursday at a Davis Joint Unified School District board meeting over what she called the school’s policy to allow transgender students to select a bathroom aligning with their self-identity.
Bourne’s removal of her clothes prompted board Vice President Hiram Jackson to interrupt Bourne’s three-minute allotted time to call for a recess.
“You are disrupting a meeting,” said Davis Joint Unified School District Superintendent Matt Best, according to video of the meeting. “We are in recess.”
The district spokesperson Maria Clayton issued a statement on Friday that said the school board halted Bourne’s public comment due to her disruptive behavior.
“In cases where that conduct disrupts the normal course of business, the board chairperson may pause the meeting and request that those disrupting the meeting leave chambers,” Clayton wrote.
The board bylaw cited by Clayton does not specifically refer to a protestor disrobing clothes, but generally offers discretion to the board chair to define “disruptive conduct.”
“The Board president shall not permit any disturbance or willful interruption of Board meetings,” according to the board’s bylaws.
Local school board meetings, city council and other government bodies are governed by the state’s Brown Act. It guarantees the right to public comment while imposing reasonable restrictions on a person’s speech, Loy said.
A school board can set a time limit for each speaker during public comment and cut that time short if a person makes threats. But the board chair cannot deem a speaker disruptive due to the person’s manner of speech, Loy said.
If the board chair had this discretion, then they could have an unlimited right to censor what they don’t like by calling it disruptive, he said.
Bourne was allowed to speak again after the meeting reconvened, but when she removed her shirt again, Jackson called for another recess. She was not at the podium after board trustees reconvened for a second time, having moved on from the public comment section of the meeting.