Citizens Sue for Right to Denounce Strip Club Operator as School Board President
by Jim Brown
June 28, 2005
(AgapePress) - An outraged group of citizens has filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey school board that appointed as its president the former manager of a homosexual nightclub.
Two community members allege they were barred last fall from speaking during the public comments section of an Asbury Park Board of Education meeting because they wanted to express disapproval with the appointment of board president Robert DiSanto. For four and a half years, DiSanto managed a homosexual strip club that promoted porn stars and sexually-themed movies.
Dennis Caufield, an attorney for the disgruntled citizens, says DiSanto engaged in viewpoint discrimination against the two individuals when he told them that personally directed comments were not allowed at the board meeting. The lawyer is taking steps to ensure that those concerned citizens' voices get heard.
"We're asking the court to grant an injunction allowing my clients to speak on this issue," Caufield says. "They want to be able to speak and heighten awareness so that members of the community can be informed and then can weigh in on whether or not they want a man who has made public post promoting lewd events in the very community where the children in the district live to continue on as board president."
Under Asbury Park School Board bylaws, the board president has sole discretion to terminate speech he deems personally directed. DiSanto allegedly forbade the two citizens from reading prepared statements critical of his appointment, citing board policy as the reason their comments were not permitted.
However, Caufield contends that the board policy itself is discriminatory. Besides, he contends, concerns about DiSanto's past behavior should not be ignored since he once ran "a nightclub in town that caters to the homosexual community," and that is connected not only with morally questionable activities but with the publishing of information that encouraged moral corruption.
Caufield notes that DiSanto's nightclub has "promoted his events through a website and a brochure called 'The Palm.'" Within that brochure, the attorney says, "are all kinds of objectionable and lewd posts that are promoting events such as the appearance of a porn star and many other lewd events that are held at the club."
One of the plaintiffs in the case is a member of the Asbury Park Parent-Teacher Organization. The other is a high school teacher who is president of the Asbury Park Improvement Association. According to Caufield, both clients are committed to making fellow community members fully aware of DiSanto's activities so they can make an informed decision about his leadership.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
