The petulant pedagogues of public education are in trouble again.
This time, the brainiacs are officials in Baltimore County schools, who called the cops on and suspended a future U.S. Marine for asking a simple question. Why, Parker Jensen wanted to know, are some of the classrooms in the county’s Towson High School missing American flags?
Now, he has sued the school system, which must waste taxpayer money defending a lawsuit that never should have been filed because Jensen never should have been suspended, let alone been the target of a police raid.
Bonus fact: State law and county school-board policy requires every classroom in county schools to display the Stars and Stripes. That means the county is almost certainly in the wrong legally. As well, it was breaking state law and its own policy.
You’re Suspended
Young Parker’s troubling tale began in February when he noticed that two classrooms at his high school did not, as the law and county policy require, display the flag, Fox45 reported.
Jensen approached the vice principal, “who said he would look into the issue,” the station reported:
In March, Jensen says he went back to his vice principal because his classrooms still did not have a flag. A few weeks later, with still nothing being done, Jensen took his concerns to his principal’s bosses.
On March 28, he left class and went to the Board of Education office with his cellphone camera ready to record. “I thought that someone would just come out, speak with me for five minutes, and then I’d be on my way,” he told the station.
“I’m looking to speak with a supervisor of some sorts that regulates Baltimore County Public Schools,” Jensen told the receptionist. He waited an hour. Then it got ugly, Fox 45 continued:
“I have a right to be here and recording,” Jensen states in the video, while showing a lobby surveillance camera. “They are recording us, at all times.”
But an administrator never came out to speak with him. Instead, in the video five cop cars responded to the administrative building to confront Jensen.
“Three cop cars for a kid? Five cop cars?” Jensen says in his video. He then turns to one of the officers. “You don’t think that’s a waste of resources, sir?” The officer shakes his head, indicating no.
School officials claimed Jensen was trespassing. Of course, they hid in the bushes when Fox45 asked for an interview because they can’t discuss “specific student records or disciplinary action.” They did say flags were in the classroom as of April 1, the station reported.
Jensen won the battle over the flags, but the school marms went nuclear on the future Devil Dog. They suspended him for seven days.
“You are suspended from the school,” hard-nosed emergency manager Richard Muth told him, the station continued. The reasons: “disruptive behavior,” “refusing to cooperate with school rules,” and “failure to follow a direction.” The station also reported that he faces a trespassing charge.
Rights Violation
Understandably, Jensen was “very frustrated,” he told the station:
I feel like what they did was unlawful. You know, we have the right to record government employees in the course of their duties. It just shines a bad light. I believe what I was doing was lawful and I had a reason to be there. And the only reason why they would suspend me is because they know that they’re on the wrong end of that.
So now, the county must fight with Jensen’s lawsuit, which says it violated his First and 14th Amendment rights under the federal Constitution. The lawsuit calls the county’s action “retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights.” It also accuses officials of “issuing false statements about his conduct.” The “retaliation” also was “intended to chill his First Amendment rights.” The 14th Amendment claim says he was denied due process.
“He got suspended for very little cause,” attorney Sarah Spitalnick told Fox 45. “He did nothing wrong besides try to bring forth his First Amendment right and really enforce a Maryland law, which is to have American flags in every single classroom.”
The lawsuit seeks damages and demands that the the school vacate the suspension.
Taxpayers will glad to know precious education dollars are going to county attorneys to fight a lawsuit. The county’s school budget is $2.45 billion. Enrollment: 111,659. Cost per pupil: $21,942.
State Law, County Policy
State law requires that each classroom have a flag and requires “all students and teachers in charge to stand” and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
“If you say the pledge of allegiance and there’s no flag, you’re just saying words that don’t mean anything,” Jensen told Fox45. In any event, at 834 words, the county’s flag policy is clear and detailed:
The U.S. flag shall be displayed at every school building and in each classroom while schools are in session.
As well, principals or their designees are charged with “ensuring that flags are properly displayed in his/her school and on school premises.”
And “each school shall begin the day by providing appropriate opening exercises that include the salute to the U.S. flag, recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and other patriotic exercises.”
