HUTCHINSON, Kansas — Facebook took down USD 308’s Board of Education meeting from Monday, where the board voted to mandate masks for all schools in the district.
The school district says because they have no control over the social media platform, there isn’t much they can do. So now, USD 308 is just hoping they will get access to the video again so the public can rewatch the meeting.
“I can tell you that it’s disappointing because we pride ourselves on being transparent,” said USD 308 Superintendent Michael Folks.
“We believe in our community’s right to share their opinions, and we think the conversations that happened last night were needed,” explained Marissa Meis, USD 308’s communication director.
Meis says the district is trying to learn how to prevent it in the future.
“What platforms they used, kind of how they stream it, and when they post the videos and things like that.”
Aside from learning prevention, legally, the school district doesn’t have many options.
“So far, the United States Supreme Court has not held that Facebook has come to carry on such a public function that censorship becomes denied to it,” said Dan Monnat, a criminal defense attorney in Wichita.
On Tuesday, the district has reached out to other school districts in the area, and they learned they are not alone when it comes to being censored by social media platforms.
“Whether they were using the Facebook live stream or the YouTube live stream,” added Folks. “I did hear a couple of board meetings were cut off in mid-stream.”
This is the first time one of their live streams has been taken down by Facebook or any other live streaming platform.
See the full story at KSN.com