# Kansas town drops charges against teacher arrested for clapping during public hearings on data centers — says that ‘case has been dismissed without prejudice’ — retained record > Retained news record from news:toms-hardware. Canonical: https://highsignal.app/data/records/4c83734a132e0cc7 [← sources](https://highsignal.app/data) source: [news](https://highsignal.app/data/news) (news:toms-hardware) published 2026-08-26 15:03 ingested 2026-08-26 20:20 [original source ↗](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/kansas-town-drops-charges-against-teacher-who-clapped-during-public-hearings-on-data-centers-says-that-case-has-been-dismissed-without-prejudice) ## retained text ``` Kansas town drops charges against teacher arrested for clapping during public hearings on data centers — says that ‘case has been dismissed without prejudice’ It seems that the city is washing its hands off the case and passing the burden on the county. Lux Claridge, the teacher who was arrested in Emporia, Kansas, during an AI data center meeting for clapping, said that the city has dropped the charges against them. According to 404 Media, the Emporia assistant city attorney told Claridge’s lawyer that the case has been dismissed without prejudice in municipal court because of conflicts on the matter. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that they’re in the clear yet, as the case has been bumped to the County Attorney’s office for further review. “Today, I was informed by my attorney that the city has dropped my charges and has passed my information along to the county,” Claridge told the publication. “As far as I know, I’m in the clear unless the county is feeling froggy.” This series of unfortunate events started when the teacher politely clapped five times after a speaker gave their comments against the proposed data center in the city. It seems that the city’s commissioners had warned against clapping and other reactions beforehand, saying that it was disruptive. So, when they clapped, someone from the crowd, presumably someone with authority, asked a police officer to take the next person who claps outside of the venue. This was when several cops approached Claridge, who asked them to leave, but they stood firm, saying, “I have a right to speak.” When the authorities insisted that they go, they just said, “Drag me out,” after which the four officers cuffed the individual, physically lifted them, and hauled them off to the Lyon County Jail. They were finally let out after eight hours, after which they were charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a law enforcement officer. After this incident, the city canceled the public meetings set for August 5 and August 19, 2026, and moved them online. The city said that commissioners were receiving death threats from external sources and that it’s taking the measure to protect the safety of its officials and the public. However, it also didn’t allow public comments, which some are questioning, although it did tell citizens that they can phone in their concerns instead. Nevertheless, the city will return to in-person meetings soon, and it will also open public comments once more, with Claridge quoting Emporia mayor Becky Smith saying that she’s “willing to give us another shot to act like grown-ups.” Emporia is expected to put the data center ban to a vote in November via public ballot. However, it also said that even if the people approve the proposed ordinance, it can only take effect after it has been ruled that the petition is deemed legal in the first place. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. - DS426 Reply“As far as I know, I’m in the clear unless the county is feeling froggy.” - Lux Claridge I like this guy. - KaiserTom Maybe if you receive death threats for selling out your municipality and tax payers to billionaires, you should take it as a sign to stop and maybe get out of office for being corrupt cronies.Reply When you remove all non-violent ways to protest and disagree with the actions of your government, you only leave one action left. And you should expect it as you deserve. No sympathy, no empathy, and no remorse for sell-out politicians to the wannabe plutocrat billionaires. - -Fran- Ok, I'm all about getting more people into these and attention, but if you're told to STFU in these, you STFU when told.Reply This was completely avoidable if they just followed the process laid out in front of them and explicitly mentioned. I hope this is a "lesson learned" for the fella, but he's no "martyr" of the system. Regards. ``` document fetched 2026-08-27 13:02 · canonical https://tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/kansas-town-drops-charges-against-teacher-who-clapped-during-public-hearings-on-data-centers-says-that-case-has-been-dismissed-without-prejudice