ASHBURN, Virginia (7News) – Loudoun County parents and community members have filed a preliminary injunction in federal court asking a judge to immediately allow parents and community members to speak at school board meetings to discuss safety concerns as their lawsuit against the Loudoun County School Board and board President Melinda Mansfield moves forward.

“The enforcement of the school board’s policies is likely unconstitutional because defendants all but admit to discriminating on the basis of viewpoints in violation of the First Amendment. Additionally, the policies are likely unconstitutionally vague, in violation of the First Amendment,” the injunction request states. “Deprivations of freedom of expression constitute a classic form of irreparable harm. The plaintiffs wish to continue to discuss safety issues at Loudoun County School Board meetings and will suffer irreparable harm to their First Amendment rights if the requested injunction is not issued.

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The federal lawsuit claims the Loudoun County School Board and school board President Mansfield violated parents’ First Amendment rights by repeatedly interrupting parents during a school board meeting and ultimately ending prematurely for public comment.

This month, Loudoun County School Board Chairman Mansfield interrupted several parents and ultimately ended public comments when parents raised concerns about a student who has ties to the MS gang- 13, threatened to kill a student and, in another incident, was arrested. for carrying a loaded gun before school. The Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) student is also in the United States illegally, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Before the school board meeting, 7News exclusively reported that the Loudoun County student had ties to the MS-13 gang and was in the United States illegally. Last year he was arrested in Loudoun County while carrying a loaded gun, and this year he was arrested. placed at Loudoun Valley High School, according to sources.

“Where is the protection and safety of our children who are at school with other children who have experienced threats, who have been arrested and who are back at school, and my daughter is terrified at idea of ​​going to school with him,” a parent told the school board before Mansfield interrupted the parent and asked them not to discuss personally identifiable information about a student during public comments.

“I didn’t give any personal identifying information,” the relative responded to Mansfield. “This kid tried so hard to show everyone who he is.”

“Excuse me, what you’re saying right now is personal,” Mansfield said.

Mansfield cut off three other parents who had signed up to speak on the same topic.

SEE ALSO |Loudoun County Schools Moves Student With Alleged MS-13 Ties to ‘Alternative Placement’

Ian Prior is senior counsel at America First Legal, which represents some of the parents and community members who have brought concerns to the Loudoun County School Board.

“These (parents) are people who are very committed to ensuring that we have not only the best school system in the country, but also a school system that is transparent and committed to school safety,” Prior said. “And of course, one of our plaintiffs is the mother of the girl who was sexually assaulted in 2021, so she has a very personal understanding of what happens when a school operates in a way where it transfers a student who could pose a threat to others. Again, this is a big concern for the community, and has been for years, and what we are seeing, unfortunately, is that this school board has not learned. mistakes of the past.

Two weeks ago, 7News was first to report that LCPS had moved the student to an alternative placement, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, but it’s unclear where the alternative placement is located.

Prior told 7News the Loudoun County School Board violated the First Amendment by interrupting speakers and ending public comments earlier this month.

READ MORE | Loudoun parents voice safety concerns during meeting over student with alleged ties to MS-13

“They violated the First Amendment because they saw the speech of our clients and the plaintiffs here, and they said, ‘we don’t like this speech,'” Prior said. “It’s viewpoint discrimination. So when you allow certain speech on certain topics that you like, and then you take topics that you don’t like and say ‘you can’t say we’re going to stop public comments so you can’t continue to say ‘this is point of view discrimination. Their job (the school board) is to be transparent. Their job is to communicate with the members of. the community on these public issues, not to silence them because they don’t want to, for whatever reason, hear it at a school board meeting.

The day after the school board meeting, Superintendent Aaron Spence and President Mansfield wrote in a press release that “LCPS will not support a forum where information about specific students is discussed publicly” and that “misinformation is is on the rise, and school divisions like LCPS must be vigilant and actively combat it.

“I would say the evidence of viewpoint discrimination, as strong as it was from what happened at the meeting, only intensified the next day when she came out and said that our job is to fight misinformation,” Prior said. “Well, it’s not the government’s job to fight misinformation. It’s not Melinda Mansfield’s job to fight misinformation, and it’s not the job of the County School Board Loudoun to fight misinformation. I mean, you don’t need to know constitutional law to understand that. The First Amendment makes it clear that the government is not the arbiter of truth.

Several parents expressed concern that LCPS allowed the student to return to school at the start of this school year.