Matthew Foldi and Bethany Mandel were barred from a public meeting focused on the district’s mandatory sexuality curriculum.

Two Maryland residents have prevailed in their First Amendment suit against Maryland’s largest school district, brought after they were banned from a contentious June 2023 school board meeting at which parents protested Montgomery County Public Schools’s refusal to allow parents to opt their children out of sexuality curriculum.

Now, the district has reached a six-figure settlement with the residents.

Reporter Matthew Foldi and education advocate Bethany Mandel accused MCPS of First Amendment violations after district officials restricted their access to a public meeting, and after school officials blocked Mandel from the “Staff Pride” Twitter account. Both Foldi and Mandel at the time were outspoken critics of the district’s hot-button decision to require children read LGBTQ-themed books without allowing parents an opt out alternative.

Hundreds of parents gathered at MCPS school board meetings in 2023-24 to rally in support of the opt-out demand. Many of those parents joined together in court to demand the district uphold their right to opt out — that case is now pending before the Supreme Court and will likely be decided in the next week.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland denied the district’s petition to dismiss Foldi and Mandel’s case in September 2024 and found that in response to Mandel’s “open criticism of the MCPS LGBTQIA+ policies,” district “Pride Members blocked Mandel from sharing, commenting on, or even viewing posts on” the district-affiliated account. She was effectively “iced out [because of her viewpoint] while others who shared the Pride Members’ views and supported the MCPS policies were not similarly restricted,” which suggested a “clear First Amendment violation.”

America First Legal, the firm representing Foldi and Mandel, reached a settlement this week.

“The right to speak on matters of public concern, and especially on the performance of the government, is paramount in the United States of America. We are pleased that we were able to achieve this result for our clients and all those who have and will speak out and continue to hold Montgomery County Public Schools accountable,” AFL Senior Advisor Ian Prior said. “Those with radical agendas may be in charge of our public school systems, but the vast majority of Americans oppose their enforced ideology and their ability to speak critically on these issues is the key to returning our schools to normalcy.”

MCPS has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees to defend its woke curriculum since 2023. Last year, Board of Education communications coordinator Christie Ann Scott called such expenses a “necessary part of Montgomery County Public Schools’ budget,” and MCPS communications director Christopher Cram described the fees as “investments in ensuring that our school system operates within the bounds of the law, ethically, and always in the best interest of our students and staff.”

“For as long as I can remember MCPS has wasted taxpayer dollars to enforce insane and discriminatory policies,” Foldi told National Review. “It is essential for both Montgomery County and for similar progressive so-called utopias across America to understand that the tide has turned. If you violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens, groups like America first legal will, and should, sue you.”

“I can only hope that our county government will finally rectify these insane and discriminatory policies,” Foldi added. “I look forward to them celebrating another humiliating defeat at the Supreme Court this week.”