Teaches Union Sues Mother After She Requested Public Records From School District on ‘Gender Theory’ and CRT

A mother named Nicole Solas requested information from the South Kingston School District in Rhode Island — through an open-records law — on how her daughter’s school integrated so-called gender theory and “critical race theory” into lessons, school policies, and contracts.

Solas said she requested a tour of her child’s school, and the Superintendent never followed up with her.

The school board claimed that Solas put in too many records requests for public information (see our post from June for more details). Solas learned that she ended up on an upcoming board meeting’s agenda: “Discussion/Action: Filing lawsuit against Nicole Solas to challenge filing of over 160 APRA requests.”

The leftist ACLU called the school committee’s response “inappropriate.” The school board voted not to sue but to seek mediation with Solas.

But Solas announced on Twitter on Wednesday that a different organization is suing her. “I just got served with a lawsuit from the teacher union NEARI. Throwing down the gauntlet, are we? Game on”

That’s not all. She tweeted this on Thursday:

“Today the teacher union NEA filed ANOTHER lawsuit against me – this time a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction. Will teacher unions bullying moms be an everyday thing now?”

According to the complaint (PDF), the NEA wants to block the disclosure of “non-public records,” and asks that requests calling for “personally identifiable and other personnel-related information about public school teachers” be blocked until a court weighs the public’s right to know with teachers’ “individual privacy rights.”

Legal Insurrection, which has followed the story from the beginning, said that the lawsuit “smells collusive.” Collusion between the school district and the teachers union?

“The lawsuit purports to prevent disclosure of ‘private’ information, but the public records laws and Solas’ requests pursuant to those laws only require the district to produce public records. The district has been very aggressive in asserting exemptions and redacting documents, so the union’s concern and rush to court seems peculiar, at best.”