On September 18, Corey DeAngelis, a member of the Liberty Justice Center’s Board of Directors, was blocked from the San Jacinto Unified School District’s account on X (formerly Twitter) for expressing criticism of the District. Mr. DeAngelis, a leading advocate for educational freedom and public school accountability, had criticized San Jacinto teacher Jacqueline Gardner for publicly celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk on social media. The district blocked him in response.
Following Mr. DeAngelis’ objections, San Jacinto Unified ultimately unblocked him, claiming the block was “accidental,” but then proceeded to disable comments across all of its posts.
This is not the first time Mr. DeAngelis’s free speech rights have been violated by public school officials. Earlier this year, the Liberty Justice Center secured a federal consent decree in DeAngelis v. Pulaski County Board of Education after another school district blocked Mr. DeAngelis on its official social media pages for criticisms of its efforts to illegally lobby against education reform using taxpayer resources. Under the consent decree, the district was ordered to cease using social media to suppress criticism of the district, to not engage in viewpoint-based restrictions on social media, and to commit to First Amendment educational training for its communications staff. Today, the Liberty Justice Center has sent a demand letter to San Jacinto Unified School District asking the District to voluntarily make the same commitments here without the need for litigation.
“The Superintendent has correctly recognized the District’s duty to honor the First Amendment rights of its employees. But the District has the same duty to honor the First Amendment rights of its critics,” said Dean McGee, Director of Educational Freedom at Liberty Justice Center. “We will continue to defend First Amendment rights and hold public officials accountable for unlawful censorship.”
If San Jacinto Unified fails to take corrective action, the Liberty Justice Center is prepared to proceed to litigation to protect the First Amendment rights of Mr. DeAngelis and all members of the San Jacinto community.
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