A parent in New Jersey did not like the way a basketball coach was allegedly berating his daughter, who played on the high school team. Supposedly the coach expressed disapproval with how fat she was. Her father repeatedly showed up at public meetings of the Board of Education to complain about the coach. Eventually, the father sued for millions of dollars, winning a jury verdict of about $1.5 million before the trial judge tossed it out.

The father won an additional jury award exceeding $500,000, including interest and attorneys' fees. His award was for the pain and suffering that he allegedly suffered due to being “gaveled down” during the public comment section of a school board meeting. He was cut off as he tried to press his grievance in that public forum.

Board of Education meetings are often tedious events. By law in New Jersey, they start at 8 p.m. and can go on, and on, and on, sometimes to midnight. What is accomplished, if anything, remains a mystery, as many schools continue their downward spiral academically. Much of the discussion has little or nothing to do with academic learning.

In this case, the father complained that the varsity basketball coach repeatedly verbally abused his daughter and her teammates. Isn’t that what good coaches do, as they drive the players to higher achievement? The father claimed that his daughter was the object of particularly harsh treatment that included disparaging comments about her weight. Weight does affect quickness (as well as overall health), and basketball is a game of quickness.

When the girl’s mom approached the coach about these weighty matters, the coach allegedly greeted her with a profanity-laden tirade: “get out of my *&!@* gym. The problem on this *&!@* team is you *&!@* parents, and I want you to leave my *&!@* girls alone.” Repeated follow-up meetings between the parents and the school’s adminstrators were unproductive.

The father, Mr. Besler, took to the public Board of Education meetings to air his grievance, again and again and again. On January 21, 2007, when the father rose to speak yet again at the school board meeting during the public comment period, the principal jumped up and insisted that he not be allowed to speak. The Board president intervened and allowed the father to speak.

At the next meeting, on January 28, 2007, the Board president cut off the father through use of the gavel after just 30 seconds. The father was not allowed to continue his remarks, but was allowed to submit written comments. The trial court gave the father the large award for that interruption.

On appeal by the Board of Education, the New Jersey Supreme Court held in favor of the father, but threw out his large damage award for reconsideration by the trial court. Two justices dissented vigorously, saying the father had no damages at all: “Astonishingly, then, Besler was awarded in excess of one-half million dollars in damages, all because he was told he could not -- for the ninth time -- hijack the public comment portion of a school board meeting to mount his favorite soapbox and rail about an issue .... Besler’s proof of damages related to the claimed deprivation of his constitutional rights on January 28, 1997 were not just illusory, they were non-existent.” Besler v. Bd. of Ed., No. A-81-08 (May 17, 2010). http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/supreme/A8108BeslervWestWindsorPlainsboro.pdf