Brevard County, Florida, public schools settles lawsuit with Moms For Liberty

After an almost four-year-long legal battle, Brevard Public Schools is gearing up to pay nearly $568,000 in a lawsuit where then-members of Brevard's Moms for Liberty chapter accused board members of stifling their First Amendment rights, according to a draft settlement agreement.

The lawsuit came in November 2021 in the midst of contentious school board meetings about issues like masking to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in schools and guidances on allowing LGBTQ students to go by preferred names and pronouns or use the restrooms consistent with their gender identities. At the time, the board had recently passed a policy to shorten public comment time in an effort to cut hours-long meetings down, and public commenters were told to direct their comments at the board chair or board members as a whole rather than singling anyone out by name.

It was something, plaintiffs said, that was used to stifle criticism against the board.

The draft settlement agreement is set to be approved at the Oct. 7 school board meeting.

The Institute for Free Speech, an organization that focuses on cases involving First Amendment rights and is representing Moms for Liberty, declined to comment. Brevard Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.

What does the settlement agreement say?

Brevard Public Schools will have to pay a total of $567,990.19, with $541,810.19 going to the Institute for Free Speech; and $26,180 going to David Osborne at Goldstein Law Partners, LLC. The payments must be issued within 60 days of the effective date of the agreement.

The purpose of the settlement is to "resolve all controversies and claims between the Parties in connection with the amount of attorney's fees, costs, and expenses" owed to Moms for Liberty and other plaintiffs, and to "avoid the expenses and inconvenience of continuing to litigate the amount of the Fee Award."

What did school board policy say when lawsuit was filed?

Brevard's school board has gone through various public speaking policies in recent years. At the time when the lawsuit was first filed in 2021, they had just approved a policy that shortened the amount of time allotted to speakers based on the number of people who had signed up to make a comment at a meeting. The goal was to reduce the length of contentious meetings that often stretched for hours at a time.

Speakers were also forbidden from making comments that were "personally directed," "abusive" or "obscene." Then-School Board Chair Misty Belford stopped speakers from criticizing other board members or district staff by name, instead requiring speakers to direct their comments to her or the board as a whole.

Moms for Liberty alleged that the policy was used to silence criticism and allow personally directed comments when speakers were praising board members or administrators.