Would it surprise you to learn that the school board in Loudoun County, Virginia, has a habit of cutting off concerned parents who stand up to speak at school board meetings? Or that it restricts media access to these meetings to such an extent that no questions can be asked of school board members? And would it surprise you that a federal appeals court just gave the Loudoun County School Board permission to limit what parents can say at these meetings?
Of course it doesn't surprise you, because this is Loudoun County, after all, home to the "Chardonnay antifa" group of white liberal women who banded together to target parents who spoke out about critical race theory being taught in county schools. Home to a school board so wedded to trans ideology that it's using taxpayer money to fight the Trump administration so boys can use girls' bathrooms and vice versa.
You get the gist.
Denied: Court Rules Against Virginia Public Schools Defying Trump-Era Bathroom Policies
Well, along comes the Fourth Circuit of Appeals to say that it's perfectly fine for the school board to limit what parents can and can't talk about at its meetings — in some instances. In a decision handed down Monday, the court ruled it was not unconstitutional for the Loudoun County School Board to prohibit parents from talking about school-related incidents in which specific students are named or readily identifiable from the nature of the comments.
Loudoun County schools to limit public comment at school board meetings. @fox5dc's @juliedonaldson_ has the story. https://t.co/oSP8LRZTfD pic.twitter.com/8Frs8CPQFh
— Morgan Cody (@Morgan_Cody_1) December 23, 2025
Here's the story behind the lawsuit brought by a group of Loudoun County parents.
The lawsuit was filed by parents who wanted to speak at a school board meeting in October after the board reinstated a student who had been arrested for allegedly threatening to kill a classmate and carrying a stolen firearm. The parents also raised concerns about the student’s alleged ties to the MS-13 gang.
When the parents began referencing the student during public comment, the school board chair stopped them, citing the district’s policy prohibiting speakers from targeting individual students.
The parents argued the policy unfairly silenced their school safety concerns and claimed it was overly vague. They asked a judge to block the board from enforcing it.
The court disagreed.
The judges ruled that school board meetings are a "limited public forum," and, therefore, school officials are allowed to place certain limits on speech, provided they "are reasonable in light of the forum’s purpose and not based on viewpoint." (This was not a final decision on the merits of the case, but rather the appellate court affirming the district court's decision not to enter a preliminary injunction on behalf of the parents who sued.)
Here's the thing, though: When a kid with ties to a known violent gang – a kid who's allegedly in the country illegally – brings a gun to school and makes a serious threat against another student (and is allowed to return to school after making that threat!), you kind of want to know who that kid is and if he is in class with your child. This isn't the time for "limited speech," because it's not simply schoolyard bully stuff we're talking about – it's very possibly student lives being put in jeopardy, and aren't we supposed to be doing everything we can to stop school shootings?
Apparently not.
Attorney Marlo Greer thinks this ruling could place Loudoun County atop a very slippery slope: "I think that there's a little bit of a slippery slope here, because they did not say the individual’s name, but yet the board made a unilateral decision that everybody could identify this person. So how do you talk about it in a roundabout way — and how do you do that?"
One Loudoun County parent summed it up well, saying, "I do not think that a small body that is ran [sic] by seven or eight men and women should regulate what the general public can and cannot say based on our First Amendment rights."
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