Trustee's Wife Might Sue Wayne, School Board Over Free Speech: Report

WAYNE, NJ — Several months after the Wayne Board of Education sent a "cease and desist" notice to a fellow member regarding his wife's comments on social media, she may sue the township and the board, a report says.

Board President Donald Pavlak and the other seven trustees sent the notice to Ryan Battershill in July, saying that a member of his family "was posting inflammatory, inaccurate statements and misinformation," as TAPinto Wayne first reported.

According to a new TAPinto report, his wife Jennifer has now filed a Notice of Claim against Wayne Township and the other BOE members. Jennifer Battershill said the cease and desist infringed on her First Amendment rights, and threatened legal consequences for her posts as a private citizen.

New Jersey requires a Notice of Claim to be filed by anyone who wishes to bring a tort claim or contract claim against the state, or any of its agencies and entities — including municipalities and school boards.

Jennifer Battershill has not officially filed a lawsuit, the report said.

The BOE had claimed that some of her Facebook posts about certain board members were "purposefully misleading," and potentially slanderous and defamatory. Battershill told TAPinto that screenshots of those posts are fabricated, and that other trustees were trying to oust her husband from the school board.

In the filed notice, Battershill claimed injury to her constitutional rights.

Both Jennifer and Ryan Battershill have also said other board members have been harassing them, even before Ryan was elected in Nov. 2022.

Read more via TAPinto Wayne.