Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Refused Access - Again

Yesterday, in accordance with the Trespass Notice issued to me by Richland School District Two on January 26, 2022, I wrote to Director of Safety and Security Marq Claxton to request Access Authorization so that I could attend tomorrow's press conference about the ten new SROs for the school district.

The Trespass Notice directs that I must request access authorization at least 24 hours before an event.

Yesterday Claxton emailed me a one-liner, denying my request and providing no reason or explanation.

This morning I mailed an appeal to his superior, Will Anderson, COO of the school district, citing the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, and asserting that the District is abridging my right as a member of the media to attend that press conference. 

I have been publishing this blog since March 2019. For those who are interested in numbers, in 2019 there were 284 postngs.

2020: 321

2021: 382

2022 (to date): 126

Blogposts have been read more than 42,000 times.

This access request is the second refused by Claxton. The first was my request to attend my grievance on February 22, 2022. 

Do you think he is refusing requests without getting a nod from persons above? Was he told to deny ALL requests? 

How did Claxton even decide to issue the Trespass Notice to me on January 25, 2022? Was he told to do so? Was he merely following orders? Is there some reason that he didn't even write a report about the incident in the board room that night? Was there something that he really didn't want to put in writing? Why was he allowed not to write a report?