Citizens of Hilton, New York were told to leave an Oct. 26 school district meeting, and three community members ended up arrested.
Stories differ about events that night at Hilton School District’s Board of Education meeting in this normally serene village of 6,000 near the shores of Lake Ontario.
Some parents were worried about former Principal Kirk Ashton, who is still on the district payroll even though he was reportedly charged with sexually abusing schoolboys over a 17-year span. It is not unusual for educators to be placed on unpaid leave in similar circumstances because of contract restrictions in bargaining agreements with teachers’ unions in New York.
Other community members had questions about their children’s curriculum, COVID-19 restrictions, and other recent district actions.
They came to hear their elected board members discuss issues and some planned to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting, which was conducted at Northwood Elementary School.
Like most municipal agencies in New York, Board of Education meetings are often only attended by a few members of the public and media. So, when a group of people shows up at a meeting, it can be unsettling because it is unusual.
A district spokeswoman said problems began when several members of the audience at the meeting were not wearing masks, which was contrary to a state mandate requiring masks in public schools. “These individuals were asked repeatedly to comply and all eventually did except one individual,” said Hilton District Communications Director Grace Scism. “At that time, the individual was asked to leave the property and refused. The Monroe County Sherriff’s Office responded, and the individual was arrested for trespassing.”
Ms. Scism added that before the public portion of the meeting began, a group of attendees became disruptive. “At that point, President Brian O’Connor and Superintendent Dr. Casey Kosiorek suspended the meeting and the auditorium was cleared,” said Scism. “Two other individuals were arrested for refusing to leave school property. The meeting commenced and was recorded and is posted to the district website at Hilton.k12.ny.us to meet all open meeting law expectations.”
When she was asked if any school business was conducted after the public was asked to leave, she said district business was conducted but denied it was an illegal meeting because they posted the meeting online.
“Board members are not public meetings,” she said. “They have a public comment period but that’s not required. It wasn’t planned to be closed but it was closed because of concerning behavior.” When asked if the behavior they considered concerning involved threats, Scism said ‘No,” before adding, “The crowd was pretty riled up.”
New York State Department’s Committee on Open Government (COOG) oversees and advises government, the public and news media on freedom of information, open meetings and personal privacy protection laws in the state.
COOG Assistant Director Kristin O’Neill clarified state statute by explaining, “Meetings of school boards are subject to the open meetings law.”
Indeed, the former COOG Director Robert Freeman wrote hundreds of advisory opinions regarding state open meetings law. Freeman, who many considered the state’s foremost expert on freedom of information and open meetings law before his retirement, wrote a 1997 opinion regarding public attendance at school board meetings.
“Based upon the terms of the Open Meetings Law and its judicial interpretation, if a majority of the Board gathers to conduct public business, any such gathering would, in my opinion, constitute a ‘meeting’ subject to the Open Meetings Law,” Freeman opined. “Further, when there is an intent to conduct a meeting, the gathering must be preceded by notice given pursuant to §104 of the Open Meetings Law, convened open to the public and conducted in public as required by the Open Meetings Law.”
Freeman continued by noting that New York’s Open Meetings Law is based upon a presumption of openness, and meetings of public bodies must be conducted in public, unless they vote in open session to enter a private, executive session.
Community members who appeared for the announced school board meeting were reportedly directed towards a school parking lot and met by deputies from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Three were charged with trespassing. One woman was allowed to drive home to take medicine and was reportedly arrested when she reached her driveway.
The three arrested at the meeting were Shanie-Rae Iorio, Dawn Tracy Fox and Jim Burroughs, and they are scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 4 in a Monroe County Court. Attorney Chad Hummel said he asked the judge to dismiss the charges because the accusatory instruments were defective. He said the school’s Director of Security Dave Inzana was not legally able to force the community members to leave.
“The individual who ordered the people to leave didn’t have the authority to do so,” Hummel said before last week’s arraignment hearing. After the arraignment, he told that large crowd of supporters that the charges against his client and the other two defendants were not immediately dismissed because the judge asked for the motion to be made in writing. Hummel said he expected this outcome because judges typically like written motions along with the opposing counsel’s responses, as this practice helps to cut down on appeals.
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