Since folks have been asking me both online and off about the legal letter that Lisa Paolino sent me, I have reproduced it below. But first, I'm going to give some background.

Awhile back, a blog post was made by one of our members on this site, titled "Radnor Commissioner Involved in Grade Fixing?", which discussed a grade changing scandal that involved Lisa Paolino, who was a sitting Commissioner in Radnor at the time. The blog post itself really didn't make any accusations, but did cite a source in the way of a newspaper article from the Philadelphia Inquirer. (Original no longer available, reprint here)

What the blog post did do, however, was ask a lot of questions. Apparently Lisa Paolino doesn't like it when people ask questions about her. Instead, I received the following letter from her attorney sometime later. (additional comments follow the letter):

From: fioravantijm @ comcast.net
To: webmaster @ saveardmorecoalition.org
Cc: llslisa @ aol.com
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:24:26 +0000

Dear Mr. Muth:

I represent Lisa Paolino who is referenced in a blog which was published at your website today. The contributor to the blog was "RadnorRabbit" and the clear implication of the blog was to the effect that my client had engaged in criminal conduct similar to the conduct of an individual (Mr. Moran) who was recently indicted by a state grand jury for political corruption.

In the view of the undersigned, the blog contribution of RadnorRabbit implied criminality on the part of my client, when, in fact, my client did nothing more than notify the Radnor School District that her daughter was ill, documented the illness and then asked that the District permit a "pass" grade in lieu of a "D" as the final grade for the Ms. Paolino's daughter's "wellness" class.

As you can see, the comparison between my client's conduct and the events which relate to Mr. Moran are not at all analogous, especially under circumstances where the School District and its independent counsel have evaluated the matter involving Ms. Paolino and have determined that the grade change was entirely appropriate. Moreover, no one, with the exception of RadnorRabbit, has even suggested wrongdoing on Ms. Paolino's part, much less conduct which would implicate the criminal law.

As you know, the blog which was published on your website is subject to republication and further comment. Under circumstances where the reputation of Ms. Paolino has already been damaged, with malice, I write with two requests: first, I ask for the identity of RadnorRabbit; second, I ask that you pull the blog from your website so that the republication/comment concern is abated.

Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Joseph M. Fioravanti
217 North Monroe Street
Media, PA 19063
(610) 892-7370 phone
(610) 892-7374 fax

My brain pretty much went into shock after reading that. What we have here is an ELECTED OFFICIAL who is trying to shut up her critics by sending legal letters to the webmaster of the site it was on. Unbelievable! Can you possiblly get any more anti-democratic than that? I don't know what things are like where Lisa comes from, but here in the United States, we have this tiny piece of text known as the First Amendment. It explicitly gives us the right to criticize others and call them on their actions. This even extends to our elected officials. In fact, I think that having the ability to complain about one's leaders is the hallmark of a free and open society.

What is even more ironic is that Lisa has this same Freedom of Speech that the rest of us do. If she wanted to dispute the blog posting, she could have easily written her own blog post that tells her own version of events. Heck, if she had asked nicely, I would have even linked to the post from this site in the interest of fairness. Having both sides of the story would allow readers to view both and make their own informed decision. I support the free exchange of information and ideas and think that would have been great if she would have just posted her side of the story.

Instead, Lisa chose to resort to this disgusting bullying tactic and had the audacity to think that she could actually get me to remove an entire member's blog removed because she disapproved of a single posting. Well, guess what? I will not be bullied.

Finally, this letter raises some other interesting questions: has Lisa Paolino attempted to bully any other individuals or civic groups that have spoken poorly of her? Has she forced other blogs off the air through such tactics? These are things that we at the Save Ardmore Coalition would like to know. If you have any information about this, please contact us.

Finally, I would like to end this post with a few relevant quotes about censorship and the Freedom of Speech:

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism. ~David Ben-Gurion

If you don't have this freedom of the press, then all these little fellows are weaseling around and doing their monkey business and they never get caught. ~Harold R. Medina

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. ~Alfred Whitney Griswold, New York Times, 24 February 1959

Thank you for reading, and good night.

-- Douglas Muth, Webmaster, Save Ardmore Coalition