Where is the line?

by: Jason Springer

Sun Dec 23, 2007 at 12:44:37 PM EST

Where is the line between public and private. That which is accessible to the taxpayer because of the position they hold, but not to the public at large because they still have a right to privacy.

A Superior Court Judge had been asked by the Evesham school board to issue a ruling after the ACLU filed a request for e-mail correspondence regarding the "That's a family video"...

Superior Court Judge John Sweeney rejected a request by the school board to determine at this time if home computer of board members is a public record. The judge said the New Jersey Government Records Council and not the courts have primary jurisdiction in determining what documents are public.
"The government records council is uniquely qualified to examine the question and a court should not exercise concurrent action," said Sweeney, who postponed further review pending a government decision.
The judge denied the request for jurisdiction under the Declaratory Judgment Act, saying it would be subversive and that would have a "chilling effect" on the public. He said it would encourage public agencies to rush to a courthouse and cause unnecessary litigation expenses.

I do see the concern that many good people will leave public office and further more will seek not to run because of this further intrusion in their life. I know others will say, if they're not doing anything wrong, then they have nothing to hide.

People have a right, even public people, to the privacy of their homes and their communications. If there is a reasonable thought that there has been a crime committed, then aren't there already procedures in place for getting at the communications?

As far as public records go, it's not the government's job to do the investigating for you. Through the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), the ACLU will have to know that the document -- in this case e-mail messages -- exist prior to asking for them. It would seem that suspecting that the emails exist is not enough to prove that they are in fact real. But if you can't see the document, how can you prove it exists. Seems like a catch 22, unless you're carrying a big subpoena with you. The Judge has said he won't take a concurrent look, choosing to wait for the Government Records Council to rule. Unless the ACLU has specific examples, past rulings would point to denying the request putting the issue back in the hands of the court.

I think this is a great discussion waiting to happen so that's why I ask you, where is the line?

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Heaping Helping of Hateful

by: Jay Lassiter

Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 07:25:15 AM EDT

( - promoted by Juan Melli)

I wanted to get some thoughts up promptly after last night's jam packed board of ed meeting in Evesham. But after witnessing the hostile scene unfold all I ended up doing is coming home and going to bed. By then it was nearly midnight anyway. The big item on last night's agenda was the film about tolerance called "It's a Family." Clearly nothing brings folks out of the woodwork like homophoba. But they sure came out in droves yesterday. The place was teeming.

Instead of a cohesive narrative, I thought I might share some of the impressions i came away with.

Group think is (still) scary. The place was positively rife, a much bigger crowd than I imagined. So crowded in fact, I had to park at a drugstore nearby. When I walked inside I was surprised to see the number of genuinely hostile people screaming and pumping their fists.

Image: MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/Courier-Post.

Bigots are self-conscience about how they look. Every person who stood up to share their (mostly hateful) thoughts prefeaced their words with "I am not a bigot, but..." or "I have gay friends, but...." Again, the folks who did so were emboldened by the crowd and would constantly look toward others like them for an appropriate response before continuing.

Bigots are big on self-congratulations No matter how inarticulate or nonsensical, if the speaker spewed hate, they were met with a hearty round of backslapping afterwards. If you want to imagine how ignorant the naysayers came off, imagine Miss Teen SC. Minus the tits and ass, of course.

A dim view of outsiders One guy said "disregard everything from non-members of the community!" Another went further: "If you don't live in Evesham or Marlton, GET OUT!"

Cllearly this didn't apply to outsiders who shared their views like members of the Family Research Council. In conclusion, gay tax dollars are welcome. Gay opinions are not.

The "Ex-Gay Movement was on hand to remind the crowd that "people are not born gay!" This to a rapturous applause. Ironically, this so called "ex gay" was the queeniest guy in the room.

Evesham parents have dubious priorities.The vote to remove a film about gay (and other non-traditional) families came half way through the meeting. Afterwards, the room emptied out nearly completely. This mean a vast majority of the people who showed up missed the most substantiative points of the meeting. Funding for arts and music budgets? Allocations to hire math and language arts staff? They had no time for these issues.

One step forward, two steps back. The pragmatist in me was heartened by the notion that many young speakers had a much more relaxed attitude about this than their parents did. In otherwords --demographically speaking -- their message will die off long before ours does.

As usual our brothers and sisters from Garden State Equality were on hand for last night's battle. Thank god for that and for their relentless persuit of equality for all New Jerseyans. After all, this issue is far from over.

Stay tuned.

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Evesham School Board Rejects Review Committee Tolerant Curriculum Recommendation

by: Juan Melli

Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 08:57:43 PM EDT

In January we told you about the Evesham school district where some parents were up in arms over the showing of a film, "That's a Family" to 3rd grade students. The film teaches kids about all kinds of families - married, divorced, and single parent families, interracial and mixed-religion familes, adoptive parents, grandparents as guardians, and - gasp! - same-sex families. That last part was too much for some parents to tolerate and in February the school board decided to suspend it from the curriculum.

At the Evesham school board meeting tonight, the School Board review committee - composed of over a dozen community members - recommended reinstating the film "That's a Family" into the curriculum, though starting a year later in 4th grade, rather than third. There would be no special opt-out from the film beyond what state law already requires for sex education. Right-wing parents attending the meeting went crazy with anger that their kids might be taught to be more tolerant than them.

Update: The school board just voted 7-1 to reject the recommendations of the review committee. Based on their reaction, the decision was pretty clearly based on the school board being uncomfortable with the gay community. There will probably be litigation following this decision. Steven Goldstein, the chair of Garden State Equality, says this is "far from over".

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