Hinsdale D-86 Official Apologizes On Public Comment Issue

Darien IL

25 February, 2022

9:44 AM

Description

HINSDALE, IL — Public comment periods have become battlegrounds in recent months in many school districts. Hinsdale High School District 86 is no exception. At last week's school board meeting, Hinsdale South student Ethan Pan continued to speak after his time was up. The alarm went off, and board President Terri Walker banged the gavel repeatedly. "Your time has ended. The next speaker is...," she said. Pan kept talking. When he was seven seconds over the limit, Walker raised her voice, "Your time has ended, sir!" The audience asked for Walker to let him continue. Pan, a school board critic and mask mandate opponent, was done a couple of seconds later. At the beginning of public comments Thursday, Walker noted her handling of the time limits. "It's not personal," she said. "I do apologize if people are offended by the enforcement of these rules." One of the commenters at Thursday's meeting was Allen Pan, Ethan's father. He played a Patch video of Walker yelling at his son. The video, he noted, had received 1,200 views. He questioned how Walker could do that to a student. Whatever the case, he said, his son received overwhelming support on social media and offline. Pan also said Walker has let other students exceed the time limit. She did not respond to Pan's comments. At Thursday's meeting, though, Walker was even-handed with time limits. For everyone, the microphone went off at exactly three minutes. That policy also applied to Walker's husband, Gregory Walker, who was one of the commenters. Unlike some districts, Hinsdale High School District 86 has not regulated what people say during meetings. In 2020, a First Amendment lawyer advised the board it could not restrict people's free speech rights during public comments. The Lyons Township High School board has taken the opposite approach. The board president, Kari Dillon, regularly warns commenters that they must show respect and civility in their comments or they will be stopped and asked to leave. She has raised the possibility of arrest for trespassing for those who refuse to go. In December, a man who repeatedly called Lyons Township board members "bobbleheads" was escorted out.