When Deb Michaels learned that Attorney General Eric Schmitt had sued the Rockwood School District, she was surprised but thought that it was a good thing.
“I think it's probably needed,” Michaels told the St. Louis Record.
Michaels, the mother of two Rockwood students, was responding to Schmitt’s lawsuit alleging that Rockwood School District had violated state Sunshine Laws by allegedly avoiding disclosing efforts to report parents to the FBI's National Threat Operations Center.
“It was all over the news, locally and nationally, that parents were making threats of violence against people that worked for Rockwood and that it was related to curriculum or daily lessons that they disagreed with,” Michaels said. "It was shocking to hear that and the way it was perpetuated over and over in the news."
Schmitt sued the school district in Circuit Court for St. Louis County last week on March 16 after having submitted a record request in November 2021.
“Rockwood School District is attempting to intimidate and bully parents into silence by threatening to have them reported to the FBI,” Schmitt wrote in the complaint. “Rather than disclose documents exposing its effort to silence parents the district hides behind fee demands, insisting on payment before releasing records that are in the public interest.”
As previously reported, underlying the controversy is U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s directive last year asking the FBI to assist in curbing school board members from being allegedly threatened and harassed at the September 2021 request of the National School Boards Association.
“We requested records relating to the Rockwood School District’s decision to post the FBI’s tip line on their website following the Biden Administration’s memo designating concerned parents as ‘domestic terrorists,’” Schmitt said in a statement online. “The Rockwood School District has not produced the records requested by my Office, and instead demanded an upfront payment with improperly assessed copying fees – that’s why I’m taking them to court. Parents and students of the Rockwood School District deserve to see these public records, and I will keep fighting for transparency in Missouri’s schools.”
After reading an article about the threats in Time Magazine, Michaels helped a friend submit a records request to the school district
“Because supposedly these threats were against individuals who work for the district,” she said. “It was about clearing our names as parents in the district if that was possible as well as holding someone accountable.”
Although they paid $250, Michaels and a friend allegedly only received a portion of the information requested from the school district.
“We received social posts but not the police reports,” Michaels added.
Like Michaels, Schmitt’s office was asked to pay the school district up-front fees, which violates the Sunshine Law, according to Schmitt’s lawsuit.
“The District violated § 610.026 by demanding advance payment of fees for items or services other than copies as a precondition to making public records available to the Office,” the complaint states.