On September 30, 2021, Chris Dimieri, a father of a Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) child, was permanently banned from attending any future FUSD school board meetings as a result of an email he sent the day before.
In his September 29th email to the FUSD Governing Board, Dimieri, a local registered nurse, voiced his frustrations with the continuation of FUSD’s mask mandate that’s been in effect since the beginning of the school year. He pointed out that the masks were “causing irreparable harm” to the children. He also wrote that there would be many petitions “calling for your resignation” and that there’d be lots of emails “calling for you all to be arrested and serve jail time”. Dimieri ended the email with “Your time is coming”.
On September 30th, FUSD called the Flagstaff Police Department stating they felt “threatened” by Dimieri’s comment and asked that he be trespassed and barred from FUSD property during all future board meetings.
Dimieri shares his story on the Jeff Oravits Show
During an interview on the Jeff Oravits Show on October 25th, Dimieri explained that FUSD misinterpreted his email and that his use of the phrase “your time is coming” was meant to be political and was not a “threat of anyone’s life or livelihood”.
Dimieri went on to clarify further that he meant nothing physically and that he was talking politically and in writing “your time is coming” he was referring to a political solution such as voting them out through a recall or “whatever the method we have to do to protect our children”. All of which was referenced in his email to the board. (Board link here)
Flagstaff Police get involved.
On September 30th Dimieri was surprised when he received a call from an officer with the Flagstaff Police Department and was told that at the request of FUSD, he was trespassed and barred from any future governing board meetings.
During Dimieri’s interview on the Jeff Oravits Show he noted that the officer had a laugh and stated that there was nothing illegal in the email.
In fact, the police report states that the entire episode was a “non-crime”. The report also noted that the board members “wished to have Christopher trespassed” and that this request came from the “FUSD board members”.
The officer told him that he had read the email and that “it did not constitute a crime”.
About as bad as it gets when it comes to 1st Amendment.
Former Flagstaff Mayor Jerry Nabours dealt with a lot of public comments that were, according to him in a recent interview, far worse during his two terms as mayor and called this entire situation rediculous.
Nabours, who is a retired attorney, wished he still had his license so he could represent Mr. Dimieri for free.
Nabours went on to state that “this is about as bad as it gets” when it comes to first amendment issues and being able to petition your elected representatives. He also brought up questions about potential violations of open meeting laws against the FUSD board as a result of Dimieri being barred from the meetings.
FUSD offers a response
Prior to airing Dimieri’s interview, the Jeff Oravits Show offered the FUSD board or its representatives airtime to discuss this issue and asked a series of questions. FUSD declined the interview and did not answer any of the questions posed including a request for the process for determining what actually constitutes a threat.
In a written response, FUSD Superintendent Michael Penca stated that, “The District takes any threat made against staff or the Governing Board seriously. Based on the communication received, a report to law enforcement was made and a trespass notification issued. I do not have any further comment regarding this matter.”
Representative government?
Dimieri is concerned about the lack of communication shown by the FUSD Governing Board. According to him, FUSD never tried to communicate with him after he sent his email on Sept 29th and that a simple phone call could have cleared up the entire matter.
On October 15th, Dimieri sent a followup email to Superintendent Penca asking for more details about being banned from the FUSD board meetings. Penca responded stating that he had been “notified by an officer of the Flagstaff Police Department on 9/30/2021 that you have been trespassed which simply means that you cannot be at the FUSD Administrative Center and property during any Board meeting or work session.”
Jerry Nabours pointed out that this was an odd email and why would FUSD respond to someone they allege is such a threat.
Dimieri hopes that he will be able to attend future meetings and that the FUSD Governing Board will reverse course. He is also open to legal action and has filed a claim with Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office.
Have a similar story? Email talkwithjeff@icloud.com
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