Arizona AG sues school board and member that allegedly attempted to silence parents

Arizona GOP Attorney General Mark Brnovich has field a suit against the Scottsdale Unified School District after the school board allegedly attempted to silence outspoken parents during public meetings.

The suit names as defendants  the school district and school board member Jann-Michael Greenburg, a former school board president.

Brnovich says the district "manipulated public input and silenced the voices of parents in order to advance its own agenda. This type of bad school behavior demands expulsion."

The suit demands Greenburg's, seeks civil penalties to the board and urges changes be made to prevent any future Open Meeting Law violation from occurring. 

The complaint alleges the district violated the OML by "knowingly" structuring an agenda and meeting to prohibit public comment about a proposed [COVID-19] mask mandate and other subjects within the district's governing board, "knowingly applying unauthorized content-based restrictions on public comment made during a board meeting, and knowingly cutting off or otherwise interrupting speakers during a call to the public," according to the Attorney General's office. 

The issue goes back to nearly a year ago, when the the school board was planning to meet to address mask policies.

The suit argues more specifically that the board "repeatedly cut off any speaker whenever Greenburg determined that the topic discussed strayed too far from the 2021-2022 instructional time model. In so doing, the board, through Greenburg, applied a content-based restriction on speech."

The case follows a request last November to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to open an investigation into the Scottsdale Unified School District board member who allegedly had access to a Google Drive filled with the personal information of some parents.

The file, which was listed in a separate lawsuit brought by three parents who claimed Greenburg attempted to silence them, reportedly included lists of Social Security numbers, background checks, mortgage documents, trade certifications, screenshots of Facebook posts, and a divorce paper.