The ruling confirms Bow School District Superintendent Marcy Kelley’s contention that such protests are “demeaning,” and constitute “harassment” and “intimidation” towards a boy playing on a rival school’s girls’ soccer team.
According to NH Journal, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe, a George H.W. Bush appointee (and widower of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher killed in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster), said while the parents “acted within their First Amendment rights to protest,” school sports events “are considered ‘limited public forums’ and school officials acted within their legal authority to restrict what the parents said and did.”
