A federal lawsuit against the Woodland Park School District and Board of Education said its recently adopted policies silenced teachers, violating their First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday by the Colorado Education Association, a state-wide labor union representing more than 39,000 educators, including in the Woodland Park School District. They said the lawsuit is to “remedy violations of the constitutional rights” of Woodland Park School District teachers.
— Read on krdo.com/news/2023/08/11/woodland-park-school-district-board-of-education-sued-for-violating-teachers-right-to-free-speech/
Woodland Park school board has ‘chilled’ free speech and violated open meetings law, according to Colorado teachers union lawsuit | Colorado Public Radio
Colorado’s largest teachers union and its local affiliate have filed a federal lawsuit against the Woodland Park School District and the district’s board of education.
The lawsuit alleges the district and board have “chilled” teachers’ First Amendment rights to free speech and free association and violated state open meetings laws when it revised a district policy and effectively instituted a gag order against teachers.
— Read on www.cpr.org/2023/08/11/woodland-park-school-district-teachers-union-lawsuit/
Resignation Letter from a Gateway teacher
With the gag order in place (policy KDDA), teachers have rightfully felt afraid to speak up. Every now and then though, we see one of them expressing their frustrating when (sadly) resigning…the latest was Rebecca Johnson, a teacher at Gateway for the last 10 years or so, who resigned last month. She emailed a very well-written and detailed letter as her resignation, and I finally obtained a copy via CORA. Please, read it for yourself to gain some insight into what our teachers have been going through in our district.
UPDATE: ACLU sues Woodland Park School Board on behalf of citizen banned from meetings, property | News | csindy.com
One day 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, the district lifted its “unlawful banishment order” it imposed on Ruths for speaking out at a public meeting, the ACLU announced in a release today, Aug. 7.
— Read on www.csindy.com/content/tncms/live/
Statement Regarding Woodland Park School District Rescinding its Unconstitutional Banishment Order Against Vocal Critic of the District | ACLU Colorado
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
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.