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Tennessee Conservative News [By Paula Gomes] –
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Board of Education has limited how long members of the public may speak at meetings and is considering other rules of decorum following recent disruptive behavior.
After disruptions during a June meeting which ended in everyone in attendance being removed, the school board approved changes that reduced speaking time for members of the public from five minutes to three. The board also agreed to do away with the practice of yielding time to another speaker.
The meeting had been particularly contentious as families criticized the board regarding now resigned Clarksville science teacher Matthew Gay Vedder who showed nude photos of himself to a female student on his phone as well as a bus crush that affected Kenwood Middle School students.
Recent school board meetings, including last month’s meeting, have seen the public walking around the room with signs and board members are now considering limits on where and how signs may be used at future meetings.
During a study session earlier this week, school board member and State Representative Aron Maberry stated that he would send the rest of the board some proposals on changes related to decorum are expected to be voted on during August’s public meeting.
Maberry did not seek re-election to the board which saw Democrats gain an advantage in last week’s elections.
Of the four out of seven seats that were on the ballot, Democrats won three, changing what had been a 5-2 Republican to Democrat board to 4 Republicans to 3 Democrats.
In the proposal which Maberry shared with Clarksville Now, behavior defined as disruptive or interference will include loud noises or verbal comments, standing near or behind a speaker while holding signs, blocking the board’s view of a speaker by standing between the speaker and the board or obstructing the ability of the board to hear a speaker. Trying to interfere with a speaker as they reach the podium or microphone will also be prohibited.
Signs will still be allowed in meetings but a member of the public wishing to hold or display a sign must remain seated and the sign cannot obstruct or interfere with anyone’s ability to observe the meeting.
The proposed policy change is aimed at preserving order and not to limit the public’s right to participate in the board’s meetings.
Sources:
Tennessee Conservative News
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
10 Responses
Tick tock, tick tock….Tennessee will be Blue in 10 years. The GOP is more interested in purging conservatives from the party than they are about the Left.
Get out, get educated, and vote! Do it before they take the ability away from us.
Spot on! However, I believe 10 years is a bit optimistic. If Republicans don’t get out and vote, it could happen a lot sooner.
I was a little confused on where to vote in Crossville but figured it out in time with help at the Registrar’s office.
Chuck, you are probably right.
What I don’t understand is, you leave a state because of
1. High Taxes
2. Over regulated
3. High Crime
Yet, they freely move from the Blue States to a Red State and keep voting the same way in the Blue state they left. It’s like they’re Locusts. Just keep consuming and move on to destroy another area. This doesn’t just go for Democrats but RINOS as well. They really think ,” I’m not voting for a radical Democrat or RINO.” They still don’t get it.
In West Virginia, Republican governor Patrick Morrissey recently went on what he called a “listening tour” of southwestern parts of the state, where residents often don’t have potable water. Despite his claim that he wanted to “listen” to residents who continue to get brown, unusable water from the kitchen faucet, by all accounts he spent more time talking than he spent listening. And he limited local residents to 90 seconds of speaking time.
I don’t see where this is an issue for any governor of any state unless that state is on a free public water system provided by the state for all residents.
Folks are getting fed up with school boards and “education” in general.
The largest block of non-voting republicans are: CHRISTIANS AND GUN OWNERS. You want more GOP vote, go to all your local churches and get the leadership of each church involved and talking about civic duties to their congregations. They have to talk about the trans nonsense, the islamic invasion, the alphabet infliction on the children by their communist teachers, the Marxist communist indoctrination. Go to the local gun clubs, sporting good gun counters, whatever it takes to get these people involved. We could lose our state ad our country of shear laziness or the thinking that the church does not belong in politics (God created government…), or that someone else will fight the battle for them – WRONG. I have worked with “My Faith Votes” for over 10 years in the effort to get Christians to the polling places, into local seat races, and get engaged. I am just one person; WAKE UP, GET ENGAGED, STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE and save this state and this nation.
I think we need to have an Honest discussion on the church/Evangelical vote.
I’ve lived in Alabama and now Tennessee. Prior, I had been in the Northeast. I keep hearing about how the south is suppose to be known as the Bible Belt. However, I don’t see it. We have visited various churches when we moved. Many of the Pastors, we met with over coffee or lunch, admit there is a Big Problem. Just because people are from the south, they think that they are Christians. From my observations and the pastors, there is an issue. Church attendance is down, churches closing, and seeing that there is not much of a difference between living up in the northeast. Meaning, where is the fruit?
What I’m trying to say is just because people say they are Christians or Evangelicals doesn’t necessarily mean they are. Many of them believe that God needs to get with the times of today. How do you even address that? I think we make too much of the whole voting block as being a voting force for conservatives when many churches today are embracing the World View. The Church has been compromised and has turned into a check list item.
I’m not saying I’m perfect or without fault but moving south was a real eye opener and hence why I see why southerners states are in trouble.
There was a church in south Alabama that actually advertised Bibles and Beer. “If anything at least you’ll get buzzed.” Seriously?
Not looking for a fight but when folks in southern churches tell me that there are no real churches up north, I mean…
The Gun Owners is what really puzzles me.
That was Williamson County 7 years ago. Now we only have 2 Libs out of 12. VOTE them out.
Banning signs tells the story. Vote against anyone who would ban signs.