After the ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit against the Woodland Park School District (WPSD) for violating the constitutional rights of Logan Ruths, a vocal critic of the district, WPSD responded by lifting the unlawful banishment order…
— Read on www.aclu-co.org/en/news/statement-regarding-woodland-park-school-district-rescinding-its-unconstitutional-banishment
Monthly Archives: August 2023
Woodland Park School District lifts ban against former employee, but ACLU will continue its lawsuit – Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition
A former Woodland Park School District employee who was banned from all district property and events after being kicked out of a June 14 school board meeting is now allowed to return to school grounds, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado said.
— Read on coloradofoic.org/news/woodland-park-school-district-lifts-ban-against-former-employee-but-aclu-will-continue-its-lawsuit/
Woodland Park School District reverses ban on former employee following lawsuit | FOX21 News Colorado
Less than 24 hours after Woodland Park School District found itself involved in a lawsuit with a former employee who alleged his First Amendment rights had been trampled upon, they unbanned him from school property.
— Read on www.fox21news.com/top-stories/woodland-park-school-district-reverses-ban-on-former-employee-post-lawsuit/
ACLU rescinds lawsuit against the Woodland Park School District | KRDO
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado pulled back on a lawsuit against Woodland Park School District for a “no trespassing” order the district issued against a man during a school board meeting.
— Read on krdo.com/news/2023/08/07/aclu-rescinds-lawsuit-against-the-woodland-school-district/
Colorado school district removes ban against former employee
A former Woodland Park School District employee who was banned from all district property and events after being kicked out of a June 14 school board meeting is now allowed to return to school grounds, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado said Monday.
— Read on coloradosun.com/2023/08/07/woodland-park-school-district-removes-ban-logan-ruths/
8/6/2023 Weekly Update
Last Week:
- Read the latest letters to the editor in the Courier.
- The Woodland Park School District was named in two new lawsuits last week. The first involves parent Jessica Pool and involves first amendment rights on religion. The second is another first amendment lawsuit, this one involving former district employee Logan Ruths who found himself banished from district property for a full year after speaking out in a board meeting in June.
- The Colorado Times Recorder obtained an audio recording of attorney Brad Miller speaking about how he helped enact these changes in Woodland Park.
- The three people challenging the board incumbents in this fall’s election (Seth Bryant, Keegan Barkley, and Mike Knott) released a single website that links to their different pages, http://www.wpsdkids1st.com/. Much easier to share with people than having to send three.
Here’s what’s coming up this week:
- School Board meeting Wednesday, August 9th, 6:00PM in the district conference room (link to agenda). We have no reason to expect the board to open up the overflow room or move this to the auditorium like some past meetings have been, so plan on attendance being limited to the first 90 people. The agenda says they’ll be taking action on updates to the Facilities Usage Agreement, and Charter Agreement, with Merit Academy. They have not posted details about what those updates entail.
- School starts in just over two weeks, and the district has not announced any plans to provide a security presence in our schools. They refused to work with the WPPD on SROs, but will be discussing this topic in executive session this Wednesday so I’m hopeful they’ll put a plan in place before school starts.
More on the ACLU lawsuit against the district
As previously reported here, the ACLU has filed suit against the district on behalf of former employee Logan Ruths, regarding his one year banishment from district property. This story has been covered by NBC, the Colorado Sun, the Colorado Springs Indy, KOAA, and the Gazette (and given that media focus, I suspect I missed some!).
Court papers were served to the district Friday, and also Friday board president Rusterholtz announced he’d like to retract the ban against Ruths. Right now, that action is pending review by board attorney Brad Miller and feedback from the other board members.
Here’s KOAA’s news coverage of this case (see story here):
You can watch the board meeting that promoted this action below, timestamp 16:10 is about where this all started:
ACLU sues Woodland Park School Board on behalf of citizen banned from meetings, property | News | csindy.com
Woodland Park School District, its board of education and Superintendent Ken Witt face a federal lawsuit filed Aug. 3 by a district patron who alleges they violated his First Amendment right by banning him from the district for more than a year, after he made a sarcastic remark at a board meeting.
— Read on www.csindy.com/content/tncms/live/
ACLU sues Colorado school district after former employee was banned
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado on Thursday sued Woodland Park School District leaders on behalf of a former district employee who they say was forced to leave a school board meeting after making a “brief and harmless” comment and was immediately banned from district property and events for more than a year.
— Read on coloradosun.com/2023/08/03/woodland-park-school-district-aclu-lawsuit/
ACLU sues WPSD
The ACLU has filed suit against the WPSD for banning Logan Ruths from school district property for one year, after he spoke out in the June board meeting. You can read the NBC article here, and can watch that June meeting here (time stamp 16:10).