UPDATE: Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking [View all]

[Tsiyu]

Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking

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She was still troubled by the gag order, however. "My concern is that they're minors. I'm not quite sure I fully understand. We know we're signing for silence for ever but how is this taking away our children's rights being minors now? I mean my daughter is turning seven today, my son is 10."

The children's father, Chris Hallowich, went on to tell the court it might be difficult to ensure the children's absolute silence on fracking – given that their ages and that the family lives in the middle of a shale gas boom.

"They're going to be among other children that are children of people within this industry and they're going to be around it every day of their life, that if they in turn say one of the illegal words when they're outside of our guardianship we're going to have difficulty controlling that," he said. "We can tell them, they can not say this, they can not say that, but if on the playground....."

The court transcripts were released in response to an open records request by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, which first reported on the children's lifetime gag order. The newspaper has been fighting for the release of all documents in the Hallowich settlement.

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So now we have mere babies being forced to sell their free speech rights to obtain compensation for the harm done to them.

We do live in interesting times. Link here .

Sorry, everyone. Was researching environmental regulations and came across this older story.

Looks like the company backtracked according to this story.

Range Resources attorney James Swetz told the judge that when it came to the settlement agreement, the family was defined as the “whole family,” referring to the questions by the parents, the judge, and the parents’ lawyer as “ancillary.”

“That’s what we’ve agreed to,” Swetz told the court. “Putting aside all these other issues and sort of ancillary topics, that’s what the settlement says, and that’s what we’ve agreed to at this point.”

Range Resources seems to now be distancing itself from its lawyer’s remarks, insisting the gag order applies only to the parents.

“Those comments are not accurate from our former outside counsel and are not reflective of our interpretation of the settlement,” wrote spokesman Matt Pittzarella in an email to StateImpact. The seven and ten year olds are free to discuss whatever they wish now and when they are of age.”

So the mofos tried to silence the babies, but looks like they realize that's just not gonna happen. The attorney for the family could find no case law about gag orders for minors, but real shady try on the defendant's part.



Sorry for any confusion, but I wonder how the gag order has worked out, and the case does make you wonder how far polluters will go to have what they want.