Massapequa School Board President Sues NY AG Letitia James, Claims AG Threatened Board Members

MASSAPEQUA, NY. — Massapequa School Board Chair Kerry Wachter filed suit against Attorney General Letitia James Tuesday, claiming James threatened to remove school board members from their posts if they misgendered students or publicly voiced support for “sex-separated interscholastic sports and school facilities” at school board meetings.

The suit stems from a May 8 public guidance letter James and State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa sent to school boards across the state and posted on the attorney general’s website, titled, “Re: Joint Guidance on Harassment and Bullying at School Board Meetings.”

James’ office declined to comment on the suit when reached by Patch.

In the suit, Wachter and her co-plaintiffs allege that James and Rosa, in that guidance letter, “require school board members across New York to self-censor and shut down parent speech that advocates for their core values and for children’s privacy, safety, and opportunity.”

Patch obtained a copy of the letter, in which James and Rosa say school boards have a “duty to conduct meetings in a manner that respects the dignity of all students.” In that letter, James and Rosa also said that, “Board members who permit the harassment of LGBTQ+ students may expose their school districts to liability under New York law.”

“Some board members have made, and encouraged, comments during board meetings that demean and stigmatize LGBTQ+ students,” the letter reads. “These comments have included attacks on school support for LGBTQ+ student groups and on transgender and gender-expansive students’ rights to use facilities, including restrooms and locker rooms, or participate on school athletic teams consistent with their gender identity — rights that remain firmly embedded in state law.”

In the new suit, Wachter is represented by the Roswell, GA-based Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), with SLF attorneys James Dickey and Jordan Miller listed on the complaint. The members of the New York State Board of Regents is listed collectively as a co-defendant; co-plaintiffs include Sarah Rouse, a mother of school-aged children in the Rockville Centre School District, and Isaac Kuo, a father of children who attend Rockville Centre schools. According to the complaint, the suit was filed in the northern district of New York because a fourth co-plaintiff, Danielle Ciampino, lives in the district and serves on a school board there.

Wachter and her co-plaintiffs are seeking $1 in damages in the suit, as well as a judgment declaring the letter from James and Rosa unconstitutional, an injunction prohibiting James, Rosa and the Board of Regents from enforcing the guidelines set forth in the letter.

“If school board members and parents disagree with Defendants’ viewpoint, they cannot speak,” Wachter’s complaint reads. “If they do speak, school board members risk being removed from their elected offices, and school board members and parents alike risk being publicly and falsely branded a bully and harasser of children.”

In the May 8 guidance letter, James and Rosa cited state education case law in telling school board members that they may be removed from their posts if they “willfully neglect their duty or violate legal protections for students in their district.”

Among the actions listed as potential grounds for removal were the violation of education law, human rights law or other state laws pertaining to public schools, willfully neglecting boardmembers’ duty as public officers, or willfully disobeying a “decision, order, rule or regulation of the Regents or the Commissioner of Education.”

“Willfully permitting the harassment of students on the basis of sex, sexual orientation,
gender identity, gender expression, or other protected characteristics meets this standard,” the letter reads. “Further, board members may neglect their duty to ‘set an example for the student body’ if they condone discriminatory or harassing comments about LGBTQ+ students.”

In their complaint, available to read in its entirety here, Wachter and her co-defendants argue the letter violated their first and fourteenth amendment rights by restricting their freedom of speech and applying “vague and overbroad” policy to that speech.

The suit comes roughly six weeks after the school district filed suit against James, State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa and Human Rights Commissioner Denise Miranda over the district’s bathroom and locker room policy. That policy, enacted in September, required that students use the facility that aligns with their gender assigned at birth. In the resolution enacting the policy, the district said that it sought to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order 14168, which stated that it would be federal policy to recognize two genders, male and female, assigned at birth.

Rosa issued a stay of the policy in October under state civil and human rights laws, which currently list gender identity and expression as protected statuses. The district argued in its October civil complaint that competing guidance from federal and state officials left it in an untenable position legally, wherein it would risk loss of funding from the federal government or the state government regardless of its treatment of trans students in its schools.