West Bend School District Denies Open Records Request

Ginny followed the following open records request with the West Bend School District.

Having learned of a “Rainbow Connection” group that fell under the auspices of the taxpayer-funded C.A.R.E. program(Chemical Abuse Resistance Education (CARE) is a confidential support program offered at the high schools that provides a way for students to deal with problems that affect learning.) at our high schools, I filed a request under Wisconsin’s Open Records Law for information concerning the facilitator of this program, the credentials by which this facilitator counsels students, what materials he/she uses, who the co-facilitator is, and further requested all correspondence between this individual and school administration/school board officials for last school year.

Seems reasonable.  After all, we’re talking about taxpayer funds and a public school system here. 

Well, the district denied her request.  In doing so, the district responded, in part, with this:

However, in light of the prior questions you have asked, the questions posed here and your public records request directed at XXXXXX, the District questions what legitimate interest is being served by these inquiries. I am concerned that this situation is coming perilously close to being a case of harassing an employee because of his/her sexual orientation. The District will not be a party to any such harassment nor will it be responsible should legal action be initiated by the employee against you as a private citizen.

In addition, although you have the right to request public records under state law, the District is not obligated to create records, which is what you are asking us to do every time you request a response to another list of questions. Although I will answer the questions you have posed in this instance, it is time to close this matter and move on to the many important issues facing the District at this time --and which have not been given the time needed due to the amount of time that has been consumed with this one item.

WOW.  Basically, the response was, “we don’t think that you have a legitimate reason to be asking these questions and it’s wasting our time.”

First, the District is way out of line questioning the motives of the person who filed the open records request.  They are required by law to respond with the information regardless of the reason for the request. 

Second, the school district is a public institution funded by taxpayer dollars.  Responding to a taxpayer’s request is their job.  If they think it’s a waste of time, then they need to reevaluate their priorities. 

The response from the West Bend School District is outrageous and probably illegal.  If this is how the district plans to treat the taxpayers of West Bend, they can expect even more friction in the community.