Tensions on high at the School District 2 board meeting, on Monday night, with the debate ultimately coming down to the right of free speech.
It involves a teacher possibly being under investigation for social media posts, something Q2 has been asking for the district to confirm for the last week, with no response.
Watch Billings School District 2 story here:
But citizens had chance to offered their comments.
“I know there's a lot of contention in the air, a lot going on in regards to the teacher at Skyview and his…,” one woman said.
“We're not mentioning anything about it,” said board chair Jennifer Hoffman. “This will be the one time that I warn the rest of the public for public comment. There will be no commenting about a teacher or where they may or may not be working.”
Sources say the district is looking at a teacher for a post about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
It's not known if this is the reason for a possible investigation.
But several showed up hoping to speak on it.
“I disagree vehemently with the way the district conducted its investigation with students by involving human resources in student interviews without parental knowledge or consent,” another woman said.
“I'm sorry,” Hoffman said. “We are not going to have a conversation and we're not going to listen to anything that is a pending or past pending investigation into personnel matters.”
And a source tells Q2 the teacher has been moved to another position in the district, but once again that is not confirmed.
Speakers on both sides came to the meeting hoping to focus on that.
“Academia has been has become a mecca for an ideology and a safe haven for an indoctrination of our children,” one man said. “A narrative that has been ravaging the political climate for the last 8 months. Absolutely nothing is acceptable about political violence or the celebration thereof.”
With those discussions not permitted, First Amendment rights became the topic.
“The teacher has done it privately and it is put out there into the world by other people for their own reasons,” one woman said about the post. “That is not the teacher's part and would not justify ignoring their constitutional right to First Amendment protection.”
“The youth is the generation of the world, one man said. “It is what is going to exhibit American values to the rest of the world in the future generations to come.”
Hoffman asked that the comments be confined to the general topic of First Amendment free speech rights and that this was not the appropriate forum to address any decision that is pending or has recently been completed.