RI Teachers Union Sues South Kingstown School Committee, Parent Over APRA Requests
Thursday, August 05, 2021
The National Education Association of Rhode Island -- and South Kingstown — has sued the South Kingstown School Committee, along with the School Department — and parent Nicole Solas — over Solas’ filing of what they said were “about 200” Access to Public Records Act requests.
As GoLocal first reported, it was the South Kingstown School Committee that first considered suing Solas for her requests questioning critical race theory.
Now, the union is suing the school committee — and Solas.
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According to the NEA, this action seeks to temporarily restrain the School Department from releasing any information related to these APRA requests. NEARI said it believes “many of these documents are not public records as defined under APRA and/or fall under APRA’s exclusions and therefore are not subject to disclosure.”
“This includes but is not limited to personal emails, labor relations materials, personnel records, disciplinary records, evaluations, and other records that do not concern the official business of the School Department,” wrote NEARI.
“We are asking the Court to conduct a balancing test to determine whether our members’ privacy rights outweigh the public interest,” said NEARI Deputy Executive Director Jennifer Azevedo. “We believe they do, and those records should either not be disclosed or should be redacted accordingly."
“Multiple APRA requests were made in recent months to the South Kingstown School Department demanding detailed information about specific educators and members in general of NEA South Kingstown, our local NEARI educator affiliate. While NEARI and NEASK support access to public information, the organizations firmly believe in protecting the rights, safety, and privacy of its members and will continue to advocate strongly on their behalf. We look forward to the Court’s declaratory judgment," she added.
“Why does everyone want to sue me just because I requested public documents?” Solas wrote on social media following the filing of the suit.
She did not respond to request for further comment.
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