An article published in Pasadena Now on November 22, 2021 makes reference to a lawsuit that had been filed against the Pasadena Unified School District by a school board member. Anytime lawsuits are filed against school districts money is taken out of the classrooms, therefore they are serious. The lawsuit was recently withdrawn. Here are the facts that may not have been apparent in the article:
• Prior to the engagement of counsel by the board member, the process to amend the protocol in question was already in place.
• Constitutional arguments regarding the protocol were not raised by the board member until the Board received the nineteen page letter from her attorney on October 6.
• Board counsel ultimately advised the board member’s attorney that he would meet with the Board at its board meeting on October 21 and would respond to the letter on October 22.
• The board member through her counsel did not wait until October 22 to hear the Board’s response to the lengthy letter and filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education just two days earlier on October 20.
• The Board’s actions in approving revisions to the protocol in question were not motivated by the lawsuit as it was Board counsel’s opinion that the protocol did not implicate the First Amendment.
• The involvement of counsel was completely unnecessary and forced the Board to engage the services of its own counsel at much expense to the District.
It benefits the PUSD that the lawsuit was withdrawn. It never should have been filed. Now, the board must return to its prime focus of putting children first and foremost in everything we do.
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