Brevard schools to pay nearly $568K in settlement with right-wing Moms for Liberty
Brevard County school board members on Tuesday voted to approve a nearly $568,000 settlement with legal representatives of the far-right group Moms for Liberty in a lawsuit filed over an alleged violation of free speech rights.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021 by the group’s Brevard County chapter and members, argued that a school board policy adopted by the board that year was unconstitutional and infringed on plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.
The policy specifically shortened the amount of time that individuals had to speak during the public comment period of board meetings — depending on how many people signed up to speak — and restricted speakers from comments deemed “abusive,” “obscene” or “personally directed” at board members or staff by name.
The policy change, since revised, came amid contentious board meetings that erupted throughout Florida over COVID-19 restrictions and mask-wearing, with the energetic involvement of members of the then-upstart Moms for Liberty, formed in Florida in 2021.
Group members, galvanized by the notion of advocating for “parental rights,” have also played a prominent role in efforts to limit the discussion of LGBTQ+ identities in schools and to remove books they deem inappropriate (or too gay) from school libraries. The Southern Poverty Law Center in 2023 dubbed Moms for Liberty an “extremist group.”
“This settlement sends a message that those who violate constitutional rights will pay a steep price,” plaintiff Amy Kneessy, a Moms for Liberty member, said in a statement about the Brevard County settlement Wednesday.
Under the settlement, Brevard Public Schools will pay $541,810.19 to the Institute for Free Speech and $26,180.00 to Goldstein Law Partners — both of which represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit — within 60 days.
A copy of the agreement, shared with Orlando Weekly, states the parties “wish to avoid the expense and inconvenience of litigation regarding the amount of a reasonable fee award.” It continues that they “instead wish to fully and completely resolve any and all claims or potential claims over the fees, costs, and expenses owed in the Action, and therefore enter into this Agreement.”
The settlement comes after another victory lap taken by plaintiffs, who describe themselves as “joyful warriors.” A federal judge in Orlando issued a temporary restraining order in support of Moms for Liberty in January, the News Service of Florida reported, preventing the board from enforcing its restrictions on public comment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit also stated in an October 2024 opinion, emboldening the right-wing group, that the Brevard policy prohibited “abusive speech” and was “facially unconstitutional” because it was view-point based and an “undercover prohibition on offensive speech.”
The policy, in addition to allegedly restricting speech, shortened the amount of time for public comment in the event of high turnout. It reduced the standard three minutes for public comment to two minutes if more than 10 people signed up to speak, or just one minute if more than 20 speakers signed up.
Attorneys for the Brevard County school board previously argued the “record reflects” that speakers at board meetings, including Moms for Liberty members, “routinely criticize the board and its policies without any interruption or comment from the board or its chair whatsoever.”
The updated policy, board attorneys argued in a 2022 brief, was intended “to ensure that speakers are able to share their perspectives, regardless of viewpoint, while preventing disruption or interference with the board’s ability to conduct its business.”
“The board has observed that comments directed specifically to individual board members tend to result in audience members calling out and becoming disruptive, whether in agreement or disagreement with the speaker’s comments. This precludes the board from conducting its business and inhibits public speakers from being heard,” attorneys said.
Plaintiff Kneessy, in her statement Wednesday, said she’s “grateful” for the October 2024 opinion “that made it crystal clear that parents have a First Amendment right to address their concerns at school board meetings without being silenced based on viewpoint.”
Silencing speech, however, hasn’t been considered a problem in all instances. The Brevard County School Board, for example, didn’t have an issue with getting rid of a longtime teacher earlier this year over her use of a transgender student’s preferred name. (The teachers’ use of the student’s preferred name was reportedly in conflict with an anti-LGBTQ rule adopted by the Florida Board of Education in 2023.)
Florida’s education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas decided this fall that free speech rights don’t apply to “disgusting comments” allegedly made by teachers on social media — an announcement that came in the wake of the killing of conservative activist and “friend” of Moms for Liberty, Charlie Kirk.