Students were primed for First Amendment talk. This Pierce County district backed out
Several schools in Pierce County hosted civil servants Wednesday to discuss influencing change through First Amendment rights as part of Law Day, a yearly nationwide observance intended to celebrate the rule of law.
The multi-school event led to innocuous but meaningful student conversations with lawmakers, judges, lawyers, government employees and others on topics ranging from voting to the housing crisis, according to a lead event organizer, Neil Stubbs.
But three schools scheduled to participate in the event, which Stubbs said was geared toward students in eighth grade or high school, ended up not hearing the local officials.
Six days before the presentations, the Clover Park School District scrapped plans at Clover Park High School, Lakes High School and Gravelly Lake Academy after some expressed concern over one of the topics promoted in a one-page event flier. The item, “Speak Up by Demonstrating Action,” summarized that people could voice opinions on issues they cared about by organizing peaceful rallies, protests, marches, community discussions and more.
The topic had given a CPSD school principal a reason for pause and then apparently caused consternation in an administrator.
“I just had a concerned principal call me and ask if that is really what we are talking about in this presentation,” Tim Stults, the district’s director of College and Career Readiness, wrote in an April 25 email to Stubbs. “Given the various sources of tension in the world, is that really a wise choice? If that is the route this takes, we may need to cancel our participation.”
Stults said he had copied a deputy and assistant superintendent on the email for their consideration.
In a follow-up email sent to Stubbs soon after on that same day, Stults officially canceled, citing testing season and CPSD’s desire to “help schools maintain a clear focus on instruction and student demonstration of learning.”
Stubbs, a personal injury attorney, shared the emails with The News Tribune through a third party. Stubbs is a past president and executive board member of the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association’s New & Young Lawyers Section, which put on the event.
“I was sad, I was offended and then I was overcome by this profound sense of irony,” he told The News Tribune. “We’re giving a presentation on the ‘voices of democracy,’ and your reaction to something that you’re not necessarily in agreement with is to completely curb and chill voices of civil servants and other volunteers associated with the legal profession, in a democracy?”
The district denied that concerns expressed about the presentation’s “demonstrating action” topic played any role in nixing its involvement.
“That was not a factor in the district’s decision not to participate,” CPSD spokesperson Leanna Albrecht said.
In a statement through Albrecht, the district said the decision to cancel was rooted in a miscommunication. The district thought that speakers were planning to discuss careers in law to Career and Technical Education Program (CTE) students.
“CTE classes were scheduled for the presentations on May 1,” the district said. “When the district received the informational flier about the classroom presentations on April 24, it was clear that the presentations were focused on a civics lesson versus a career focus.”
Further, the district said, scheduling constraints made it so CPSD couldn’t accommodate the event quickly enough for the appropriate audience.
“Due to the timing of the receipt of the presentation information, the district did not have time to reschedule presentations into civics classes,” the district said.
CPSD didn’t clarify whether Stults’ remark about “various sources of tension” was in reference, either in part or fully, to pro-Palestinian protests that have occurred at major U.S. colleges and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at the time of his email.
Many volunteers, lengthy planning
Law Day begin in 1958 under President Dwight Eisenhower. In keeping with this year’s national theme, “Voices of Democracy,” the event in Pierce County was intended to create an open dialogue about civic participation. A PowerPoint detailed ways students could make their opinions known. Organizers asked schools willing to participate to sign up by April 1.
Stubbs said the event wasn’t political, nor agenda-oriented, but more so about giving students a rare face-to-face opportunity to talk with small groups of local leaders in a low-pressure setting about whatever issues they cared about.
With CPSD’s withdrawal, there were 11 presentations given across eight schools Wednesday. One more is planned for next week. Participants included students from Bethel, Franklin Pierce, Orting and Tacoma school districts, according to Stubbs. It had been at least five years since the last Law Day event of that scale, he said, adding that he didn’t know if factors beyond the pandemic were to blame for that.
More than 75 volunteers offered their time for the event, which took organizers six months to plan. Stubbs said volunteers relayed to him that conversations Wednesday had been meaningful but relaxed, with hardly any focused talks on First Amendment rights issues. One student, for instance, had asked about defending a client in court when thinking they might be guilty.
Stubbs said that organizers would have been willing to scrap the topic that caused CPSD concern and held only an open-ended discussion. But he said the district wouldn’t entertain his attempts to try to figure out a resolution.
“I’m surprised that such a brash decision was made without seemingly any willingness to have a dialogue,” he said.
In its statement, CPSD said it was open to participating in the event in the future.
“We value providing a balanced educational program for our students and actively work to elevate student voice and empowerment,” the district said. “Importantly, staff will seek increased communication and collaboration with the organizing group to ensure we are clear on presentation content and audience to ensure classroom presentations are relevant to the course and students.”
This story was originally published May 3, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
