Carlsbad schools chief cancels forum on immigration

Philip K. Ireland:

Citing past violence and threats of violence surrounding the "hot button" issue of immigration, Carlsbad Unified School District Superintendent John Roach said Thursday that he has canceled a town hall meeting scheduled for next week on the Carlsbad High School campus.

Sponsored by Republican state Sen. Bill Morrow, Thursday's meeting, titled "The Illegal Immigration Crisis," was scheduled to include former San Diego mayor and radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock as emcee, Colorado Congressmen Tom Tancredo, Minuteman Project founder James W. Gilchrist, attorney and author Madeleine Cosman, and former U.S. Attorney Pete Nunez.

Morrow defended his town hall meetings and other gatherings Thursday as peaceful affairs that sometimes inspired debate but had never turned violent, adding that he was concerned that canceling the meeting was "encouraging the politics of intimidation and threats."

Morrow's meeting would have focused on how illegal immigration affects health care, homeland security, education, the economy and the environment, according to a flier distributed by the senator's staff.

Roach told one of Morrow's aides in a phone call Wednesday that he was canceling the event, then followed up that phone call with a faxed explanation to Morrow's office Thursday, just one week before Morrow's meeting was to be held at the high school.

Roach cited a school board policy that allows the superintendent to deny use "if an event poses an unreasonable risk of damage to the facility, equipment, or furnishings, and that might jeopardize the security, health, and well-being of an audience or of the community."

"Based on my understanding of the recent events in Garden Grove, Baldwin Park, and Campo, it is my belief that the event you had planned poses exactly such a risk," Roach said Thursday, reading from the letter he had faxed to Morrow's office.

Illegal-immigration forum barred by school officials

School bars illegal-immigration forum