Bourne restraining order dismissed

PHOTO: Case information – Superior Court of California – Yolo County

By Sean Campbell

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Davis Joint Unified School District has filed for the dismissal of a temporary restraining order (TRO) placed on Davis High parent Beth Bourne. 

Bourne is a leader of Yolo County’s branch of Mom’s for Liberty, a conservative interest group focused, in part, on the elimination of transgender education in public schools. 

Bourne’s group hosted an event at the Davis branch of the Yolo County Library on Aug. 20 that attracted national attention after the event was ended by library staff who said the group had violated library policy. Throughout late August and September, multiple anonymous bomb threats were sent in to local law enforcement with anti LGBTQ+ language. The threats involved multiple DJUSD sites and two staff members.

The TRO was initially filed on Oct. 4 against Bourne. The school district was concerned about some of Bourne’s public Instagram posts, including ones where she had posted room numbers and names of DHS staff members on her personal social media account. Some of these posts were later shared on a large conservative social media account, raising the profile of the issue. 

Doxxing is the unauthorized publication of private or identifying information, especially when it is forwarded to a large audience. While doxxing is not a crime itself, it can lead to convictions of other crimes including harassment and incitement of violence. 

In this case a clear link could not be found between the posts and the bomb threats, according to a statement by Superintendent Matt Best to DJUSD staff. He said that despite attempts, “local and federal law enforcement have not established a causal connection between local-level social media doxxing and the subsequent anonymous bomb threats that we experienced.” The district believes that without a formal link it is unlikely permanent action against Bourne would have succeeded in court. As a result, the district filed for the dismissal of the TRO.

In his statement, Best said that site supervisors and local law enforcement are on high alert, both physically and on social media, and are ready to make sure any future “disruptions or threats to school safety are swiftly addressed.” 

DJUSD’s appointment-based site visitation system will continue to be enforced as a way to limit dangerous interactions and access to photos and videos of students and staff that could be used for doxxing.