Anti-Mask LTHS Speaker Threatened With Arrest

LA GRANGE, IL — A speaker during this week's meeting of the Lyons Township High School board was threatened with arrest for trespassing if he did not leave within 10 seconds after calling school officials "bobbleheads."

William See, who opposes mask mandates, first called school board members bobbleheads for going along with the school's decision to require students to wear masks.

Board President Kari Dillon said, "Mr. See, I'm going to stop you. You're making some disparaging comments."

See apologized, saying he didn't mean to do so.

He then said he later learned Superintendent Brian Waterman was a bobblehead because he was following "Emperor Pritzker's" executive order on masks, referring to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Then he got out a bobblehead to demonstrate what one was.

That was enough for Waterman.

"Mr. See, your time is up, and I'm going to ask you to leave the auditorium now," Waterman said. "If you don't leave in the next 10 seconds, you'll be in violation of trespassing."

See responded, "How did I trespass? I'm right here talking. What I'm doing is talking."

"We don't allow personally disparaging comments, and you're asked to leave the auditorium right now," he said, again threatening See with a trespassing charge.

Then the superintendent got up from his chair. A security officer approached See and started to escort him away.

Dillon said, "That's it. Mr. See, you may leave now. You don't reside in the district."

See could be heard arguing with the security officer.

Then he yelled back to the school board, "Just so everybody knows, you guys will be masking your kids, and they'll be killing themselves."

He has argued that masks cause depression and suicides.

It was unclear that a school board or any other public body has any authority to charge a speaker with trespassing, especially in light of the First Amendment.

See was only allowed to speak for a little over a minute, even though each speaker gets three minutes under the board's policy.

Patch left a message for comment with Waterman on Thursday.

At a meeting last month, Dillon warned that the school may be able to take legal action against residents who make "personally disparaging" statements during the meeting. However, First Amendment lawyers say the government cannot regulate the content of speech.

Earlier this year, the Hinsdale High School District 86 board was advised by a First Amendment attorney that it had no legal authority to restrict disparaging comments.

See has spoken to the board a number of times in recent months. During an October meeting, he said the school wanted students to get involved in "transgenderism" and called board members "worse than pedophiles."