Galveston Blogger Mom Update
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Superintendent of Galveston (Texas) ISD released a statement late Friday recommending that the district cease legal action against the blogging Mom:
“It appeared late Friday that the district was backing down from its threat to sue a parent for defamation. In a statement issued late Friday afternoon, Superintendent Lynne Cleveland recommended that the district drop all legal action against a Web site it has accused of defamation.
Cleveland said she’s recommending backing off the legal action because she did not want to pull the focus away from the education of children any longer.
“I think I’ve made it very, very clear the reason I’m here is for the students,” she said. “The students have already suffered enough because of other issues out there that don’t pertain to their education, and I’m not going to let that happen to them anymore.”
***
Cleveland said Buzbee’s letter did not bring about her decision to drop legal action. She said she drafted her statement on Wednesday but waited two days to release it.”
Apparently the Superintendent’s statement was issued independent of the School board:
“Board President David O’Neal said he was not aware of Cleveland’s recommendation late Friday. He said the board would make the final decision.”
An earlier post on this topic is here.
— DRJ
This just begs the question:
What skeletons are there that Superintendent Cleveland wants to keep under wraps?
Another Drew (8018ee) — 11/10/2007 @ 2:00 pmshows that it was all about intimidation. just a bully trying to shut up a critic, but all talk and no action
chas (98fe7b) — 11/10/2007 @ 2:02 pmI think this might also be an example of how old-style law reacts to new-fangled blogging.
The typical lawyer thinks in terms of torts, contracts, and property rights so reading derogatory statements about a client makes most lawyers think about defamation and not necessarily about free speech. Very few lawyers deal regularly or even occasionally with Constitutional issues like free speech and, believe it or not, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees.
DRJ (5c60fb) — 11/10/2007 @ 2:09 pmI think it is more a matter that far too few lawyers understand new media and do not realize how they and their clients look when legal threats are published by those that they threaten. I spent a lot of time trying to get entertainment companies to understand this in the decade past.
SPQR (26be8b) — 11/10/2007 @ 2:25 pm