The Record Eagle reports that Traverse City Public Schools joined the social media lawsuit initiated by the Frantz Law Group and were advised to do so by the school's law firm which happens to be our district's firm too, Thrun.  The article shows they did a lot of soul searching before deciding to join in, it does not indicate that they went into closed session to figure whether to join or not.  They did their deliberations on whether to get into this litigation in open session, which was not only transparent of them, but within the law.  

Exceptions to conduct closed sessions must be construed strictly according to multiple court rulings.  You must present specific court litigation, you offer nothing.  You must be discussing either trial strategy or settlement strategy of pending litigation, and since there is no settlement talks in existing social media litigation and no trials scheduled at this point, there is nothing to discuss with the secret meeting you wish to conduct.  

Lastly, you have failed to show that there is a detrimental financial effect to the Ludington district if you discuss whatever topic you plan to talk about, which we know is not trial and settlement strategy as the law allows, in open session.  If you are offered the same option as the Traverse City district there is no detrimental financial effect for joining or not joining this lawsuit.  You can only gain money, should you ultimately decide to join.  I'm sure you will agree that social media platforms are harmful, while falsely asserting that carcinogenic crumb rubber sport fields our kids play on are not.

Should you go into closed session to discuss the social media litigation under section 8e tonight, I guarantee you will have it challenged.  [END comment]

The board would ask the California attorney, William Shinoff, who probably has little understanding of Michigan's OMA or even California's as his specialization is not in those areas, who indicated some of the material should not be put out in an open meeting, but the board wisely chose not to go into closed session and discussed this issue in front of me, who was the only non-school official at the meeting. 

It would be helpful in figuring out that this was pretty much just another shakedown of a corporation (like Juul before this, the companies Meta, Tik Tok, SnapChat, etc. here) for these lawyers to score a legal victory over one of the many bugbears attacking and harming our kids safety and health.  They hope to score a lot of money, those school districts that join them will see some of that money too, but just wait.  Guess who might be a future target?  I would speculate on that the coming Monday.

May 15:  Peterson Auditorium, LASD School Board, regular meeting

The agenda packet for this meeting showed only some routine business, and nothing further about the litigation or the installation of turf, scheduled to start almost immediately according to the school's harmful social media.  The auditorium setting made it an excellent opportunity for me to speak passionately about both, but I also threw down for the first time at the school board on the Unbounded Library program, where I insisted that it needs some boundaries, or else:  

XLFD:  "At the May 10th special meeting, the council openly discussed joining a lawsuit against social media companies led by the same law firm that was successful against Juul who was alleged to have targeted youths with their marketing of vapes that contained addictive substances.  In similar manner, Attorney William Shinoff told this board that they would be seeking equitable relief beyond the monetary relief alleging that several social media algorithms attracted and failed to keep harmful material away from children.  

The irony has not been lost on me that the board joined a lawsuit against Juul and most likely will join another multimillion-dollar lawsuit against social media companies claiming that they charmed and cajoled children to want and access materials that are especially harmful.  And then between those considerations they eagerly chose to spend $1.4 million on Astroturf made up of carcinogenic crumb rubber and other materials that are especially harmful to children and to the delicate environment surrounding Oriole Field.  

Keeping on that theme of materials harmful to our children, I have been doing some research on the Unbounded program and made some interesting discoveries.  First, I learned that there was no memorandum of understanding made between the Ludington district and the Mason County Library, so when you approved of the memorandum in November, there was none existing to approve, and there still hasn't been any drafted and approved by this board or the library board.   Your attorneys should be able to tell you of the dangers of being in a controversial program without having an agreement between two public agencies that have a duty to the people to do no harm to the kids of the school district.

The Unbounded program is controversial not because it expands school libraries by letting them receive books and other materials from the Ludington or Scottville District libraries, it is controversial because it allows young students to access material that is not age-appropriate for them and often not content-appropriate for them and allows them to do that without the knowledge of the parents.  Because of your vote in November, you have allowed the school to objectively distribute "child sexually abusive material" to our district's children and furnish to them books containing obscene language, or obscene prints, pictures, figures or descriptions tending to corrupt the morals of youth.  These are crimes with legal consequences in Michigan.

A ten-year-old 5th grader in the Ludington Elementary School can acquire an amazing array of adult-themed titles from the Unbounded program including the 'graphic' graphic novel Gender Queer, and ten other of the top 12 titles that are actively banned from other accountable high schools.  These titles may have literary value to some audiences, but it is irresponsible and potentially unlawful to provide these age-inappropriate books to ten-year-old fifth graders, especially without the knowledge of those responsible for them.  Like the nicotine in Juul products, the polyvinyl chloride in our Astroturf, the algorithms in our social media, the child sexually abusive material in our uncontrolled Unbounded library are materials that are harmful to our children.  

You have the means to unbound this unsound program to make it appropriate for our kids and I suggest you do that at your next meeting when you either pass an actual memo of understanding recognizing what is age-appropriate material or abandon the program altogether.  This shall serve as fair warning that I will be reading passages and showing pictures from the perverse adult content you let into our schools during the summer meetings, with the hope that you stop my madness by stopping your madness. [END madness comment]

Now, as a side route on my tour last week, I talked in person with Eric Smith, the director of the Mason County District Library (MCDL), regarding the Unbounded Program and came to an agreement that it can be a great program for giving schoolchildren access to books and other library materials.  But for some reason I couldn't impress on him about why ten year olds should not be reading about adult themes that they can't understand and which conflicts with their upbringing, all without parental knowledge.

And so, I was not too surprised that the library sent a representative to the board meeting who attempted to address and/or rebut my concerns right after I spoke and not too surprised that she failed to show anything other than what I had already agreed was true, that the Unbounded program expands the resources available to students, while avoiding the problems that introduces.  We can expand resources available to children by letting them take advantage of peep shows, having unlimited internet access, going to R and X rated movies and the like, but that isn't desirable-- unless you are trying to damage and/or exploit kids.

May 15:  Mason County Central (MCC) High School, regular school board meeting:

It had been a little while since I attended a MCC Board meeting, held one hour after Ludington's board each month, but I was interested in seeing how they would approach their next bond proposal, as they indicated they might seek it again in November.  As typical, I observed while at my first meeting with a much different MCC board and didn't talk, finding out that they are seriously thinking about trying again in November.  

The board has good chemistry from what I saw, but there wasn't much to report until the second comment period, when one of the parents addressed the board about a variety of topics like how her kids were experiencing bullying and an incident where the middle school's boys coach was running around the track with a couple of shirtless high schoolers.  This parent had sat by me earlier until her son arrived, so the superintendent may have taken that into account when he eagerly made an appointment to talk with her about the issues she brought up.  

I could only hope more parents like her would come to school board meetings and frankly speak their piece, but she's one of the few exceptions who will, and she made it clear that she is planning on coming to future MCC Board meetings.  I think I will too for the rest of the summer, just to hear what she may contribute, if not to read dirty books available to ten-year-olds in Scottville's Unbounded program after I do the same in Ludington.  

May 17:  Scottville Library, Mason County District Library Board, regular meeting:

My last stop was my first time with the Library Board, predicated not only by my concerns with the Unbounded program, but also because I felt they may discuss a recent FOIA request sent to the MCDL regarding the circulation of 11 of the most-banned-school-library books in the MCDL that went through the Unbounded program to any of the three public schools in Mason County.  

I was not disappointed as I heard that it was likely that they might try to block the circulation records through the "Library Privacy Act" which would not be applicable for the records I requested.  I would have liked to address the board in the comment period they provide at the beginning and end of the meeting, telling them how I admire the Unbounded program, but felt it needed some limitations so that age and content inappropriate books would not fall into the wrong hands. 

In Ludington, fifth graders share the same buildings as prekindergartners and everything in between, so what's stopping a ten-year-old from reading these books, some being graphic novels showing sexual acts on young children and either sharing them with or practicing what they learn on littler kids?  It must be okay even if the parents teach otherwise, because the library sent it, the school endorses it, and it shows kids doing this stuff.  No.

I enjoy having the discipline to be able to not speak when I have a lot to say and am expected to talk, and then be able to come back at future meetings to catch them flat-footed and ill-prepared.   I would have been ill-prepared at this meeting, because I have yet to gather enough information to figure out why there is no limitations on the Unbounded program, as the program's name implies.  One thing they did do at the meeting was to create and approve a Memo of Understanding with Ludington Schools on the Unbounded program.  

So, this tour had me starting off in PM Township questioning the legitimacy of their supervisor, then back to Ludington to question the legitimacy of a closed session (and succeeding in opening the conversation), then after a brief binding stop at the Ludington Library, moved on to the auditorium, where I opened by showing the board that their actions may cause harm and that they will get an earful and eyeful of what they share with lower elementary schools throughout the rest of the summer.  

It was quickly off to the MCC Board in Scottville, where they nervously sat when they heard from a parent about her concerns with what actually happens in school, interrupting the illusion they created throughout the meeting that everything was rosy exceot for some stingy taxpayers voting down their bond again.  Then it was bounding back to Scottville again two days later to observe and report and learn about the meetings of the library board, in preparation for a future tour where I can sing Unbounded.  

If you believe that you can improve your community and that your local officials are not doing the right things, come with me on the next tour and do your civic duty along with me.