Platte Canyon Schools Uses Park County Sheriff to Limit Speech

The Platte Canyon School Board of Education meeting started off with two attendees being escorted out. One for speaking out of turn and the other for verbally "attacking" a school board member. Here are the details:

Dave Poniatowski requested in writing to speak during the public comment to the agenda. Mr. Poniatowski spoke to the board concerning his involvement, many duties and his passion for the BOERA organization (the attached file, provided by Mr. Poniatowski, is the statement he attempted to make). Mr. Poniatowski then discussed the board attacking him in a previous meeting and stated Ms. Sheri Bezzant lied in that meeting. Ms. Bezzant requested that the President Ms. Amy Carman stop the public comment. Ms. Carman proceeded to stop Mr. Poniatowski, admonished him for "attacking" a board member and after some back and forth discourse, Ms. Carman asked Deputy Lampman to escort Mr. Poniatowski out of the meeting.

DP_statement 12.12.2022.pdf

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While this was occurring, Dr. Rob Shearer an attendee of the meeting, asked what bylaw they were using to remove the constituent from public speaking. Ms. Carman replied that Dr. Shearer was out of order. Ms. Carman continued by asking Dr. Shearer if he wanted to be removed as well. He asked if he could answer the question, she only wanted a yes or no answer. Dr. Shearer responded by repeating the former question, Ms. Carman asked Deputy Lampman to escort Dr. Shearer out of the meeting.

Dr. Shearer provided comment to the Park County Beacon and had this to say about the incident "I *was* out of order at last night's meeting. The original speaker, however, was not. And it was worth being thrown out to make that point" Additionally he stated "throwing me out for merely asking the question—and even more absurdly for *responding* to Ms Carman’s questions after specifically asking if she really wanted a response—was completely disproportionate to the infraction."

During this unusual turn of events, Superintendent Mr. Schmidt randomly stated "Why are you staring at me? This is not my meeting!" Mr. Schmidt was given the opportunity to comment and has not responded to the request at this time.

Ms. Bezzant provided comment to the Park County Beacon. Ms. Bezzant was asked if she believes that constituents have the right to speak freely in accordance with the constitution, and did she agree that an individual has a right to express themselves without interference or regulation from the government? She replied yes to both questions and then said that she believed that she followed the policies of the board. Ms. Bezzant said that the comments made by Mr. Poniatowski were not productive to the meeting and had this occurred in a classroom he would have been thrown out. Ms. Bezzant was not willing to answer anymore questions.

Mr. Poniatowski provided these comments to the Park County Beacon "My right to free speech was 100% violated at this meeting. I did NOT attack Sheri Bezzant. She needs to own up to the ignorant, false, lies and accusations that she stated at the August board meeting. She did not respond to my inquiry prior to the August meeting, although she acknowledged receiving it from me, when I requested clarification on what to expect at that meeting. Instead, she attacked BOERA. I felt personally attacked and humiliated in a public setting (which was well attended due to the topic on the agenda of changing the school year in 2023/24 to a 4 day week). I was the only one from BOERA able to attend on short notice. The meeting was, as is always the case, recorded and made available to the public.

I was hoping to move on after giving my 3 minutes, wanting to put this personally behind me, having some sense of closure. It's been very stressful, not only for myself, but also for my wife and children. I have 2 kids in district that I am now very concerned about receiving blow-back. My wife is very upset but wants this over.

Instead, I feel as though I have again been attacked and embarrassed in front of the public. I feel I have no choice but to fight on to clear my name and to expose the corrupt nature of certain members of the BoE board until they fess up to their wrongdoings."

The Park County Beacon has CORA requested the video and audio recordings of the December 12, 2022 meeting. The Superintendent responded:

"While some records may be accessible and could be produced in the three working days generally allowed, more time than that may be required to retrieve all relevant records. With this notice, I am letting you know that the District anticipates possibly needing up to the additional seven working days allowed under the CORA in order to fully meet this request. The District's Board Policy 710 allows it to charge a fee at the rate of $33.58 per hour "for staff time spent in excess of one hour for the following: researching and retrieving the requested records; conducting searches for requested records; reviewing records to determine whether they are responsive to the request; and identifying and separating those records that are not public and/or are privileged or confidential." I will notify you in writing if your request will take more than one hour, and if it does, what our estimated staff time will be. With this notice, I am denying your request to waive any additional fees associated with this CORA request."

The Park County Beacon corrected the Superintendent stating that the current 710 policy only allows for $30 per hour charge. The Superintendent conceded but still denies the waiver of fees.