School May Have Violated State Open Meeting Law

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson is looking into a complaint from a local couple that the school board might have violated the Idaho Open Meeting Law in its handling of their protest about an R-rated movie.

Thompson said he met with Kathryn and Karl White on Dec. 22 to discuss their complaint. The prosecutor said he has requested minutes and tape recordings of several board meetings between July and October.

Board chairman Elaine Vincenti said she’s confident the trustees acted properly.

“Obviously, we feel that we followed the procedures and we’ll turn all our documents to the prosecutor,” she said.

“The Whites are now making allegations about certain personnel matters and they will be encouraged to take those complaints through the proper channels.”

In May, the Whites complained to the board about the showing of the movie, “Pink Floyd The Wall,” which they said was shown to their son without parental approval.

It was later disclosed that an unedited, R-rated version of the movie was shown by a substitute supervising a class while a history teacher was out of town.

The Whites said they were advised by “friendly sources” within the administration that their complaint was discussed in July on several occasions by school board members and administrative staff.

Idaho’s Open Meeting Law subjects both informal and formal meetings and social events to the law, if a quorum of officials is present.