A constitutional conundrum

While the rest of the country stresses over the future of the Constitution, organizations in North Idaho are trying to solve a constitutional question from the recent past.

The Coeur d’Alene School District said in a statement Monday it has no record of denying copies of the U.S. Constitution to its high school seniors in a yearly tradition thrust into question by an attorney representing the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

Jeremy Ray Morris, a lawyer representing the KCRCC in a discrimination lawsuit filed against the school district, said in a Nov. 9 press release that removing electioneering Republicans on Election Day was the latest in a line of actions the district took against conservatives.

“Partisan favoritism aimed to help Democrats and hurt conservative Republicans is the kind of behavior we have come to expect from a school district that prevented the distribution of copies of the U.S. Constitution to high school seniors last week …” Morris said in the statement.

Scott Maben, director of communications for the district, told The Coeur d’Alene Press the allegations are untrue.

“Each fall, our high school government teachers focus on lessons on the Constitution, and for years they have distributed copies of the U.S. Constitution to those students — mainly seniors — thanks to the generosity of Kootenai County Republic Women Federated,” Maben said.

Maben said he has checked with principals from Lake City High School, Coeur d’Alene High School and Venture High School, who reported back that students were able to receive copies of the Constitution, as they do every year. All three schools had ample copies, including Lake City High.

“Beginning with Constitution Week each year, government teachers Troy Anderson, Kelli Plaster and John Fodge spend two weeks using the Constitution booklets from Kootenai County Republican Women Federated to teach a myriad of lessons and activities,” Maben said. “They do everything from reading and writing assignments, scavenger hunts, acting out scenarios, and studying case law where applications of the Constitution are investigated and discussed.”

Maben added that though the school has not received additional copies this fall, the teachers had enough on hand to distribute to all seniors and still make them available to juniors, with about 100 booklets to spare.

"Lake City High School has appreciated the Kootenai County Republican Women Federated for their generous donations of the Constitution booklets over the years," Lake City principal Deanne Clifford said in the statement.

Coeur d’Alene High, meanwhile, reports that it has about 50 copies left over after handing out copies Sept. 17, adding that the school’s government textbooks all contain copies of the Constitution, as well.

“Chapter Three is all about the Constitution and amendments,” Maben said. “Government classes discuss when amendments were signed, the purpose of the amendment, the year established, (and) the process it took to create the Constitution. Teachers also hand out voter registration cards, which is a state mandate. The school administers the Civics Assessment the week of Dec. 14 -18; it's a graduation requirement.”

Venture High School also had enough copies on hand for every student in the school, Maben said, and that the school has not heard from the KCRWF this year.

The lawsuit in question alleges that conservatives electioneering for Republican candidates beyond the 100-foot buffer were illegally removed from school property — specifically Hayden Meadows Elementary School in Hayden — on Election Day. The district has denied the claim.

Morris said the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice Friday on technical grounds, and that the KCRCC would likely file in federal court later this week. Dismissals without prejudice mean a plaintiff is not legally prevented from attempting to file suit again.

Morris told The Press in an interview for a Nov. 11 story on the discrimination lawsuit that the school district declined to pass out the Constitution to its students under the guise of the coronavirus pandemic.

An officer from the local Republican women’s group, meanwhile, said that as of Nov. 5, the date of their monthly meeting, the KCRFW was still in possession of the booklets. Furthermore, she said the women’s group does a thorough count to keep a surplus at a minimum.

“All I can tell you,” said Bonnie Russell-Hunt, secretary for the KCRFW, “is that the (KCRWF) has been passing out Constitution books to seniors for years and years and years. However, it’s my understanding that this year, because of COVID, they said they didn’t want them passed out. I don’t know exactly who ‘they’ are. But from my understanding, we still have them, as of the first Thursday of November.”

Maben said the booklets on hand were indeed passed out to students this fall, and the only COVID-19-related delay that came to mind was when the school board voted to postpone the start of the school year district-wide because of the pandemic.

“As always, our schools welcome new donations of the booklet(s) from KCRFW,” Maben said. “Although the start of the school year was delayed one week this September, nothing in our re-opening plan or public health protocols prevents us from receiving new supplies of the booklet this year. Each school looks forward to coordinating this with the organization.”

Morris, meanwhile, said Monday afternoon the entire matter is a distraction from the KCRCC's claims the school district broke the law by allegedly removing Republican supporters more than 100 feet away from polling places.

"As an attorney," he said, "I’ve been hired to represent the interests of the KCRCC. All of this has become a bit of sideshow to the real issue at hand. The fact is, our right to (support candidates) was denied to us. These are more the symptoms of a left-wing bias."

While Maben expressed gratitude to the KCRWF for the women's group's continued support, he said he felt Morris's statement deserved a forthright rebuke.

"We can’t let these things just fly by," Maben said, "or they become part of a narrative that is detached from reality."