I think any community member, parent, OC school's educator, voter, taxpayer, OC citizen or OC stakeholder should be free to speak at public meetings.  Speech is a sacred and important freedom.  I have been at over 25 school board meetings in the last 2 years and have never seen an OC resident speaker who was out of line or who should have been censored.  In fact, I wrote a lengthy article published in the Oldham Era regarding my views after an incident where a father finished, or tried to, his sentence outside his 2 or3-minute time allowance and was approached, at the direction of the Chairperson, by law enforcement and disrupted from finishing his sentence.  I spoke out loudly about this behavior then and I would again as a board member.  I do think that the board should survey the community about out-of-town speakers.  This Board serves this community, and it is my opinion that the majority of speakers should be either living, teaching or have relatives attending school in this district.  As we saw over the last 2 years there are activist groups who do not have our best interests at heart who travel to meetings in order to cause chaos and color the board's impressions of the public will.  I consider this behavior disingenuous and, in some cases, deceitful. I am not a supporter of board members using profanity at meetings and as a board member I would censure that behavior strongly as I would have when a board member used profanity to refer to parent's who were at meetings with signs. However, as we all commonly understand, parents and chief stakeholders like guardians and grandparents have certain dialects and grace should be extended to them in these highly charged important moments.  These are the people who are vested the most, care the most and stand to lose the most when a board goes rogue.  If they get emotional or loud that is their right these are their children and I see no reason to censure an American from stating their opinion boldly when it is so vital that a school board get the point.  WE did see some emotion at some board meetings, as was warranted, and it was not respected and certainly not heard.  When a board disregards the opinions of the chief stakeholders, like this board has continually, the voices will get louder, and they should.  The goal of community involvement is to foster that involvement, not manage it to within a breaking point.  If there are many who want to speak, and it will take a lot of time to hear them all then I would say hear them all because that is a sign that the board needs a serious check up from the neck up on what they are doing and even a more important reason to hear what the community wants to say to them.  At the end of the day, though, hearing and listening are 2 different things. In addition to all of this I would listen to the OC speakers and make my voting decisions based on their opinions every time up to and including the few times I might disagree with them.  If there is applause or heckling, I think it is right and proper to ask the public to refrain from this behavior, but if they do not and they explode in verbal outrage that is their right.  If a speaker makes statements, the public approves of to the point of clapping and statements of approval this is all important engagement that the board should be open to.  If a meeting becomes so charged that it is disruptive to speakers to the point where a few moments of accommodation is not enough, then even more time should be allowed for the speaker as the statements could be deemed more important to hear.  If the board makes a decision that causes a general uproar, then I strongly feel that the vote should be held off until the next public meeting in order to research it more thoroughly and invite more public discussion.  Meetings are not silent classrooms with heads bowed taking furious notes- they are designed to produce discussion opinion and debate and sounds that approve or disapprove of certain things lend to the system of public engagement.  The public is never to be considered a disruptive student in a well-managed classroom but rather the leader in the conversation and the final authority.  I am firmly of the opinion that when the board is acting in step with the community the occasions of uproar simmer down considerably and this is as it should be.  Paid instigators and political groups from outside our county Should be discouraged from using an OC Schools public meeting to voice their agenda and opinions.  If there are no people within our County to state those opinions, then they could be left unsaid or moved to the end of the meeting to be voiced. I am curious why so many people from outside our County felt like they should answer the call of certain factions and disrupt a school board especially during a national emergency and try to sway them as they struggled to do what is best for our District. I would like to explore ways to make sure these things are so transparent that we can all as a community see clearly where these things are coming from.  For instance, perhaps a placard on the podium that says Jefferson County or Oldham County or Trimble County etc. I feel so strongly about freedom of speech that I am unwilling to say I think these actors should not be able to speak but I think we should all be able to tell where they are coming from.  As for the Micah Cain incidents I was there, I was witness to both of them.  In no way did Micah act in any way that was disrespectful or that caused any disturbance above the ordinary disturbance of public meetings in general.  When the police escorted Micah out of the public forum, I was sitting in the audience, and I immediately went out a side door to see what they were doing to him.  I watched for a few minutes as they detained him and violated his rights.  Even in the heat of those moments Micah carried himself with decorum and dignity.  I waited, watching, to make sure that he was fine and did not need any assistance. A witness to government overreach by police forces is sometimes all that is needed to remind them of their oaths. They seemed relieved that Micah was so peaceful and respectful. I was also there the times people from outside the county were heckling OC residents as they spoke, on several occasions, without remark from the board.  It was obvious to me as a spectator, a speaker, a resident and parent in OC that there was an agenda to silence certain speakers.  This is such an unfortunate mishandling by the board that it is criminal.  I have called for the resignation of board members over it several times publicly both at meetings and in articles to the editor of the Oldham Era.  IMO when people do not speak up against tyranny it silences the groups in general and then tyrants abuse their power.  This is something we know from history and from life experience.  I am ashamed it happened here and would never sit silently if it ever happened on any board I was a member of, especially a school board, where the example to students is such an important lesson.  I only know Micah Cain well enough to know that he is an involved and concerned parent and a brave American who was unjustly treated.  I am glad to find out that he pursued the matter using legal channels and that he has acted on the behalf of all of us to protect our rights to free speech and expression.  It is unfortunate that he was put into that position, and I would try to put systems in place to ensure it never happens again to another parent speaking out for what is right.