William Blasi, the father of two members of Pen Argyl, Pa.'s Wind Gap Middle School basketball team, was unhappy with his sons' playing time. The 17 e-mails that he subsequently sent to various school officials and coaches were pointed enough in their criticism that the barrage prompted the school's principal to send a letter to Blasi informing him that he would be prohibited from attending one home basketball game for violating the school district's "Parental/Spectator Guidelines." Blasi's "scathing and threatening e-mails," the principal noted, "berate and harass our coaches and make degrading and deplorable comments about 7th and 8th grade players in a most undignified manner…" The letter also made clear that further criticism of the coaches and players would not be tolerated, and that further violations of the parental rules would lead to a total ban from future games.
Reacting to the one-game ban, Blasi filed a federal lawsuit, Blasi v. Pen Argyl Area School District (2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112412), in which he claimed that the school district's action was in retaliation for his having exercised his First Amendment rights. Blasi also argued that the rules prohibiting the inappropriate or antagonistic manner of confronting coaches was unconstitutional, as the description is vague and overbroad, and could be stretched to encompass almost all criticisms.
In assessing the constitutionality of the school's guidelines, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that the policies still permitted individual expressions of dissatisfaction with the coaches. They merely served, the court held, to act as a reasonable restriction on when parents or spectators should express their concerns with coaches in order to avoid disruptions and interfere with the rights of others - and as such, were not overbroad.
The court also held that a careful review of the school principal's letter revealed that there was no retaliatory action in suspending Blasi from attending one basketball game. The letter, the court held, carefully set forth Blasi's specific violations of the Parental/Spectator Guidelines, cited the exact provision violated, and described his unacceptable behavior. Therefore, the court held, the school district was well within its rights to impose the sanction it did.
Schools use such guidelines to control some parents' behaviors - harassment, the use of foul language and other verbal abuse - that are far more common than physical violence against coaches and officials. As this case makes clear, spelling out school policies and parents' violations of them to the letter will help ensure administrators' actions will be upheld in court.
