An Article that should serve as Warning to the Board.

GALVESTON COUNTY



District may sue Web site for defamation



Friday, October 19, 2007



By Rhiannon Meyers/ The Daily News



GALVESTON — Galveston public school trustees on Wednesday authorized the district’s legal firm to take all action necessary to clamp down on what they say is libelous material on parent-run Web site www.gisdwatch.com.



The law firm, run by David Feldman, plans to issue a letter to site administrator Sandra Tetley demanding that she remove all libelous material. If she refuses, Feldman plans to sue her.



The district’s move to sue for defamation is rare and unlawful, said Sandra Baron, executive director of New-York based Media Law Resource Center.



Under the 1964 Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, government entities cannot sue for libel — any court would toss out the “threatening” suit as being inconsistent with U.S. law, she said.



A school district suing for libel is an intimidation tactic and a waste of taxpayer dollars, Baron said.



“It’s clearly designed to tell citizens of the community: ‘Don’t mess with us. We have the power. Not only do we have the power, we have the tax dollars. And we’re using your dollars to fight your fellow citizens when they say something we don’t really like,’” she said.



“It’s pretty extraordinary to use the power of the state and the resources of the state, that is, the entire tax base, to ... try to bring a libel suit against an individual citizen.”



Libelous Or Not?



More than 100 registered users post on Tetley’s site. Feldman said it contained the most “personal, libelous invective directed toward a school administrator” he’s seen in his 31-year career. The district asked its law firm months ago to start monitoring the site.



The material is affecting the credibility of the district by deterring teachers who may want to work there, said board President David O’Neal.



Trustees first openly discussed suing gisdwatch.com at Wednesday’s board meeting.



It was the first time Tetley knew district officials thought the site was libelous, she said.



She plans to review all material deemed libelous, then decide what to delete, she said.



“We’ll definitely take a look at it,” she said. “We don’t want the district to be able to divert the attention away from our fight with reconfiguration. If they think it’s important enough to take it down, it’s not worth the district spending money to fight me.”



Criticism



The board has long been criticized by Tetley and others for its actions, including reconfiguring its middle schools, closing elementary schools, meeting in executive sessions some have claimed are illegal, refusing to divulge the contents of a letter from a civil rights consultant and for issuing a budget forecast that was off by more than $10 million.



As the four-hour board meeting wound to a close Wednesday night, O’Neal pondered why there was still criticism of the district when it’s moving forward in a positive direction.



“The train has left the station and is gaining speed,” he said. “Either get on the train or get run over.”



Feldman said he considers only a few postings libelous. They’re libelous, he said, if they contain statements purported to be fact accusing Galveston administrators and trustees of breaking the law. Such postings by Tetley and anonymous users accuse trustees and administrators of lying, corruption, cover-ups, spying on employees outside nonbusiness hours and “enrich(ing) themselves financially,” Feldman said. In one posting, Tetley wrote “everything the district has done since (Lynne Cleveland) became superintendent has been either illegal or immoral, or both.”



If the district sues Tetley, it won’t ask for money, Feldman said. It will only request that she delete material that school district claims is libelous.



“This is in no way ... any effort to stifle criticism, whether it’s legitimate or not,” he said. “The sole reason for bringing the action is to stop the posting of clearly defamatory material.”



Tetley’s policy of allowing anonymous postings encourages libel, Feldman said.



Tetley said she allows anonymous postings because parents and teachers are worried about retaliation.



“That’s why they’re coming after us, because they want to silence dissenters,” she said.



“I think it’s horrible, and I think it’s a waste of money ... They bring in this (public relations) consultant to try to change this whole perception of how they are. They talk about building bridges, and now they’re going to sue us for speaking out and having an opinion. I would be willing to take it down, just so they don’t spend money. That’s not where I want the money to go. I want it to go to the classroom.”



Tetley said she has obtained a lawyer.



Defaming Public Officials



Though the district’s move is not unprecedented, it’s rare. Feldman tried to sue a resident for defaming school officials only once before, he said. Representing Alvin public school district in the mid-1980s, Feldman stopped an Alvin family from accusing school officials of discriminating against Mexican-Americans.



It’s often difficult to prove a public official has been libeled.



Aside from proving libelous statements are damaging, public officials must also prove actual malice. Actual malice means knowing a statement is false or having reckless disregard for the truth.



Bloggers complicate things.



The federal courts have ruled that bloggers can’t be held liable for what others post on their sites. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in April ruled that a Pennsylvania blogger wasn’t responsible for the content of postings on his site even though he picked which postings to display. The same court held in 2003 that America Online wasn’t responsible if one subscriber impersonated another in an chat room and defamed him.



The rulings stem from a federal law stating that those who control blogs and chat rooms can’t be held liable for statements contributed by others.



Invasion Of Privacy



In another twist, the district is considering suing on Cleveland’s behalf claiming invasion of privacy. At least one posting was signed with her name, though it was obviously not penned by her. The posting mocks Cleveland’s mottos about building bridges, oceans of opportunities and new directions. In this case, Feldman said he wouldn’t have to prove actual malice.



Though the posting is satirical, and not libelous, it’s an invasion of privacy to post in another’s name, he said.



“It’s like you’ve been figuratively raped,” Feldman said.



He’ll ask Tetley to remove all postings signed by Cleveland. Reconfiguration



The district’s controversial reconfiguration prompted Tetley to start the Web site in March. The February decision to place all island fifth- and sixth-graders at Weis Middle School and all seventh- and eight-graders at Central Middle School left Tetley thinking trustees and Cleveland weren’t listening to parents.



“We wanted to have a voice,” she said.



Tetley, using her site and a group called Galveston Alliance for Neighborhood Schools, made it a mission to “expose what the district is doing.”



Since March, Tetley has formally complained about the district to the Texas Education Association and the Galveston County district attorney. She’s filed 15 open records requests for Cleveland’s employment application and trustees’ campaign finance reports, among other things.