Brevard school board considers pulling ‘non-agenda’ public comment from live stream amid book controversy

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Brevard County School Board is considering removing “non-agenda” public comment from the live stream amid controversy over parents in other districts reading explicit book excerpts to the school board.

According to HB 1069, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in May, parents “shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection.”

If the school board denies the right to read passages due to content that is “pornographic” or “harmful to minors,” the school district must discontinue use of the material.

Brevard County School Board member Katye Campbell, who proposed the policy change, said that “obscene content does not have protection by the First Amendment” during a Sept. 12 workshop.

The proposed policy change would split public comment into “agenda” and “non-agenda,” and then shut off the live broadcasting for “non-agenda” public comment.

“This isn’t free speech, you don’t have a right to say everything you want to say at every location that you want to say it. That’s not the First Amendment,” Campbell said.

Thomas Kenny, Policy and Media director for Indian River of Florida Chapter of Moms for Liberty, told Florida’s Voice he believes that Campbell is “incorrect” and said her quote pertains to the “commercial channels that are not broadcast for the purpose of the public interest.”

Kenny said it is up to the board whether to stream the public comments live and that it has “nothing to do with the FCC.”

“Because of this FL statute 610.109 (3) concerning Government Access TV, HB 1069 is in perfect alignment with broadcast law,” Kenny said. “The decision to not allow the reading of the material evidence in library books is the school board’s only.”

While the legality of the policy change remains a topic of debate, a similar situation was recently discussed by the Indian River County School Board after the board voted to remove a number of books after the board stopped parents from reading sexually explicit passages.

During a Sept. 11 Indian River School Board meeting, attorney Sidney F. Ansbacher spoke on the topic.

“Public access TV is not directly regulated by FCC,” Ansbacher said to the board. 

Ansbacher, an attorney with Upchurch Bailey and Upchurch, represents small colleges with FCC regulation. Ansbacher went on to say what the Indian River County School Board is doing is “complying with what the Florida Legislature has directed it to do.”

During the Sept 12. board workshop meeting, Chair Matt Susin said he is fine with airing the public comment live.

“I don’t mind it being live,” Susin said. “I would vote to have it live, and I would vote to have it to where they can speak during the agenda items for public speaking. But I do appreciate your guys’ concern.”

Brevard County School Board member Megan Wright told Florida’s Voice she will not be supporting the policy change as being proposed because she believes the public comments “should be streamed live.”

“The only compromise I would make, as stated before, is to move non agenda comments to the end of the meeting thus giving the public two times to address the board,” Wright said.

Wright said she believes HB 1069 is “excellent legislation” and the effort to “not televise public comments live further makes the case that some materials in our schools are not suitable for the audience they have.”

Campbell told Florida’s Voice she takes this “very seriously.”

“Out of my own personal sense of responsibility, I do not want us to broadcast live material that would not be appropriate for children of any age to watch at home,” she said.

Campbell noted school districts are “not even required to record their meetings, much less broadcast or livestream them.”

During the workshop meeting, board member Jennifer Jenkins said she would be most in favor of “leaving it alone” and changing it “if it’s abused.”

“That’s my number one choice, but I’m not against Ms. Campbell’s choice of recording it as long as it’s posted exactly when the live meeting is posted, which again, I don’t understand why we can’t do that,” Jenkins said. “That way, there’s no delay and there’s as little conflict as possible.”

Board member Gene Trent said he’s always been a fan of splitting the public comment of agenda and non-agenda, and would support stopping the live stream. 

“It really isn’t about who’s speaking what, when, I just don’t think it’s necessary,” Trent said. “I mean, if the objective for public comment is to get us to hear something, then they’re achieving it. If it’s anything other than that, it’s not productive for us, and it’s show-y.”

“I’m for splitting public comment, just off the top my head, I think that would be wise. I mean, we have work to do, we have to govern and we’ve seen meetings – where it’s just – by the time we get down to doing what we’re supposed to be doing, it’s way into the evening, and that’s unfortunate,” Trent said. 

The new policy says “board business will be concluded prior to hearing public speakers on “non-agenda items.”

“Public speakers shall be split between speakers that are addressing the board on propositions on that evening’s agenda (‘agenda items’) and those addressing issues not on that evening’s agenda (‘non-agenda items’),” the policy draft reads.

If speakers want to speak on both, they need to sign up on both lists. 

A “short recess” will be taken before non-agenda public speaking session to “allow for a switch from a live broadcast format to a recording format.”

Non-agenda public speakers will not be broadcast live, and all comments will be recorded and placed online for public viewing. 

As the future of the policy remains unknown, Moms for Liberty Brevard Chair Deborah Crisafulli told Florida’s Voice they disagree with the idea of separating public comment agenda/non-agenda and blocking the live stream. 

The topic has currently been placed on the Sept. 19 board workshop agenda.

Florida’s Voice reached out to the FCC for additional clarification on this story and did not yet hear back.