'Who defines hate speech?' Mitchell school board approves new hate speech policy

Jul. 24—MITCHELL — The Mitchell Board of Education on Monday night approved the second reading of a new hate speech policy that is expected to cover areas and infractions not necessarily addressed by the district bullying policy.

The approval came on a 5-0 vote of the board following discussion and input from the audience.

"I'm encouraged by the policy. I was reading an autobiography of a person who had experienced hate speech when he was in elementary and middle school, and what ramifications that had in his life, so it really brought to the forefront for me to hear from a real live example, so I see the value in it," Deb Olson, president of the board of education, told the Mitchell Republic following the meeting. "I think the benefit is, with policies we can always make changes. We have someplace to start now. If implementation is difficult, we can go back and revisit the policy."

The approval of the second reading completes a process started last month when the board got its first look at the new policy, which Joe Childs, superintendent of the district, said was brought forward to supplement the current district policy on bullying.

The board also discussed the merits of the policy at its most recent meeting in June.

The second reading included an addition that added language concerning race, color, sex, disability and religion as part of the opening statement to broaden the scope beyond racial epithets and national origin, as the first reading of the policy stated. Childs said the addition came from a discussion he had about the policy with a district patron.

"I took down a conversation from a community member to continue broadening this a bit to include the verbiage 'based on a student's race, color, national origin, sex, disability or religion,'" Childs said.

The board agreed to add the language before opening up the discussion to members of the public.

Dwight Stadler, a member of the audience who read a statement opposing the policy as part of the discussion portion of the agenda item, said that enforcing policies containing the language "hate speech" creates an environment of victimhood and that the term itself was vague and could result in damage to the free speech rights of students.

"Hate speech is a vague term used to criminalize any form of disagreement with the far-left, woke agenda," Stadler said as part of his statement. "Within that, the far left makes prolific accusations of racism for simply opposing their cancel culture views."

The wording of the policy could put students in danger of policy violation for racism when that is not the intent, Stadler said.

"Hate speech is overabundantly used to play the race card where no racism exists. Upon what clear precise definition are you basing your determination of what constitutes hate speech? You see, there is no clear definition of hate speech. You have attempted to apply it to racism, however such a broad term means anyone can claim speech they simply don't like and doesn't fit their personal political ideology is racism and hate speech," Stadler said.

Steve Sibson, another member of the audience who spoke out against the policy when the board discussed the first reading in June, agreed that the policy could have a chilling effect on the free speech rights of students.

"Who defines hate speech? There is no definition. This flies in the face of the First Amendment. If you're saying something based on a Biblical position and it's considered hate speech, that's a violation of the second plank of the First Amendment, which is freedom of religion," Sibson said. "This policy, if you want to uphold your oath of office, needs to be voted down."

Both Sibson and Stadler said they understood and were not opposed to what the policy was attempting to do, but disagreed with the way it was trying to do it.

Terry Aslesen, a member of the board of education, said he also understood the oppositions' position, but having a policy in place will give district staff some authority in the matter if intervention and punishment are needed.

"Every kid, whether they believe in the same things we do or not, needs to be treated with respect. Policies like that are strictly aimed at making sure that the office personnel have some backing that they can say that what they're doing to that other kid, making them a victim, is inappropriate," Aslesen said.

Matt Christiansen, another member of the board, said despite a lack of a hard-and-fast definition for hate speech, inappropriate language should be fairly easy to identify based on the language of the policy.

"The term hate speech is probably fairly broad, but if we look at the first sentence where it talks about epithets and slurs. We're not talking about suppressing people talking about ideas and beliefs and values," Christiansen said. "If we think about race, sex, national origin, we can all think of words we wouldn't use in public discourse. This is targeting those words. You can talk about what you believe or value, but be appropriate about it."

Childs said he did not have concerns about implementation of the policy and he said he would meet with administrators from across the district to discuss how to approach enforcement of the policy to make sure they were all on the same page and understood the intentions of the policy.

"It's an opportunity for us to educate on what's appropriate and inappropriate and hopefully conduct business in appropriate manner and have respectful discourse on topics and educate students," Childs said following the meeting.

The board also approved the 2023-24 school district budget on 5-0 vote.

The proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year comes in at $24,118,049 in the general fund, which also includes drivers education and Mitchell Career & Technical Education Academy funds; $4,996,942 for the capital outlay fund; $6,263,030 for the special education fund; $2,294,988 for the food service fund, and $36,153,342 for the combined totals of the Mitchell Technical College post-secondary funds.

Tax levies resulting from the new budget would come in at $1.320 per $1,000 of ag valuation in the general fund, $1.574 per $1,000 of total evaluation in the special education fund and a total of $5,101.603 in taxes requested for the capital outlay fund. The opt-out total will remain at zero under the proposed budget.

The board reorganized for the 2023-24 school year at the meeting.

Among the business conducted through the yearly reorganization, Deb Everson was sworn in as a new member of the board, replacing Matt Christiansen, who stepped down after the adjournment of the first half of the meeting. Olson was again elected as board president, and Flood was again selected as board vice president.

The board approved the following personnel moves at the meeting:

* The new certified hire of Samantha Olson, student support specialist at Mitchell High School, $53,625, effective Aug. 1 and Sabra McCarthy, elementary teacher, $57,600, effective 2023-24 school year.

* The new classified hires of Patti Brown, paraeducator at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary, $16.86 per hour, 7.25 hours daily, effective Aug. 16; Lydia Brink, librarian aide at Longfellow Elementary, $17 per hour, 7.5 hours daily, effective Aug. 16; Dawn Whitley, administrative assistant at Longfellow Elementary, $17 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 2; Samantha Keckler, administrative assistant/attendance secretary at Mitchell Middle School, $17 per hour, effective July 31; Wildmike Pata, Title VI tutor/ISS supervisor, $17 per hour, 8 hours daily, effective Aug. 9; April Miller, head cook at L.B. Williams Elementary, $17 per hour, 5.5 hours daily, effective Aug. 8; Angela Thompson, paraeducator at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary, $16.25 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 16; Lois Pravecek, paradeducator at Longfellow Elementary, $16 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 7; Karen Ivey, paraeducator at Mitchell High School, $17 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 16; TaRhea Rath, paraeducator at L.B. Williams Elementary, $16 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 16; Rachela Dirksen, paraeducator at L.B. Williams Elementary, $16 per hour, 7.5 hours daily, effective Aug. 16; Ryder Thompson, general food service worker at L.B. Williams Elementary, $16.50 per hour, 4.5 hours daily, effective Aug. 8; Jessie Uher, paraeducator at L.B. Williams Elementary, $18 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 16; Destiny Stone, paraeducator at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary, $16 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 16 and Sherri Cochran, paraeducator at Longfellow Elementary School, $16 per hour, 7 hours daily, effective Aug. 16.

* The transfer of Meghan Puetz, data support specialist food service to administrative assistant at Mitchell High School, effective July 6.

* The resignations of Anne Berg, paraeducator, paraeducator at L.B. Williams Elementary; Cathy VerSteeg, teacher at Longfellow Elementary and Glenn Grindheim, paraeducator at Mitchell High School. All resignations are effective for the 2023-24 school year.

* The new Mitchell Technical College hire of Jerry Brink, CDL instructor, $62,000, effective Aug. 1.

* The Mitchell Technical College additional position of Devon Russell, project director for USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Training in on-farm precision experimentation for the Workplace Project, $9,300 per year grant, effective July 1.

* The resignation of Amy Gough, instructional media specialist, effective July 14.

Also at the meeting, the board:

* Approved of the 2023-24 high school and elementary handbooks.

* Approved the second reading of Policy 103 and Policy 544.

* Approved a bid for Mitchell Technical College student-built houses #110 and #111.

* Approved the purchase of a Volvo L60H for Mitchell Technical College.

* Approved the purchase of John Deere equipment for Mitchell Technical College.

* Approved Performance Foods for the prime vendor contract for the food service program for the 2023-24 school year.

The next scheduled meeting of the Mitchell Board of Education is scheduled for Aug. 14.