Whitley County Consolidated Schools just taught us all how not to handle a crisis involving parental rights, student safety, and constitutional law.
Here’s the setup: a middle school student alleges a bus driver exposed his underwear and brandished a belt. The school failed to inform her mother. When the mother recorded a meeting with administrators to get answers—legally, under Indiana’s one-party consent wiretap law (Ind. Code § 35-33.5-1-5)—the district retaliated by banning her from campus.
Now the Goldwater Institute is preparing to sue under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming First Amendment retaliation. And honestly, they’ve got a solid theory…