The latest defeat occurred yesterday, May 5, when Douglas County District Court Judge Jeffrey Holmes ordered DCSD to identify the person who'd filed a Colorado Open Records Act request asking for the names of the 1,000-plus teachers who'd called in sick on February 3 to protest Wise's impending dismissal: Michael Kane, law partner of Dan Caplis, a KHOW radio host who'd publicly called for the instructors in question to be identified in what critics saw as an attempt at public shaming.
The opinion was released a day after the district informed parents and guardians of a data breach involving a third-party company that may have compromised many students' private information.
The latest filing was pressed by 9News parent company TEGNA on behalf of anchor Kyle Clark, who's closely covered the DCSD shenanigans over Wise's pink-slipping by board president Mike Peterson and colleagues Kaylee Winegar, Becky Myers and Christy Williams, all of whom were elected in November 2021. Representing the plaintiff was the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition's Steve Zansberg, who's also handling a lawsuit pressed by Douglas County resident Robert Marshall regarding alleged violations of Colorado Open Meetings Law by Peterson and company. In response to a motion in that case, Holmes issued a temporary restraining order against boardmembers making policy in a series of one-on-one meetings outside the public's view.
Holmes's latest order notes that the Douglas County School District didn't consider the name of the person who'd asked for teachers to be identified to constitute a public record, since that individual withdrew the request at the last minute. Holmes rejected this logic, however: "There is no authority of which this court is aware that permits a requester to remove a CORA request from its status as a public record by simply asking that it be withdrawn."
That makes sense to Marshall, since "the request for the person's request was made before they asked to withdraw the request (i.e., when there was no doubt it was still a public record)," he tells Westword. "And that the DCSD had already released everything from the request but the name of the requestor before the request had been withdrawn. Both arguments sound like lock-solid analysis. And also shows how the DCSD and this new BoE [Board of Education] continue to violate Sunshine Laws."
Shortly after the order was released, 9News revealed that the requestor was Kane, who insisted to the station that he took this course of action on his own, rather than on behalf of Caplis. "I submitted the open records request for my own use as a parent of children within the Douglas County School District," he told the station. "As a favor to and at the request of the District, I withdrew the submission and never received any of the names." Caplis offered a similar reply: "I admire what my friend and partner Mike did. He’s a great dad who wanted the info for his personal use. I didn’t know he was going to submit the request. But I respect his reasons and admire him for withdrawing it at the Board’s request."
For its part, the district offered this: "The Douglas County School District (DCSD) has reviewed the District Court’s May 5, 2022 Order related to a lawsuit filed under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). DCSD defended the disclosure of the open records request at issue because it believes that a withdrawn CORA request is not a public record. DCSD receives many information requests under CORA every day. We want our citizens to be comfortable asking for public records without fear of personal retaliation. We also feel strongly that it is important to protect our teachers and staff who may have been absent on February 3, 2022, for a variety of reasons, while simultaneously upholding our responsibility to provide publicly releasable documents under CORA."
The data breach involved Illuminate Education, which contracts with the DCSD; its website contends that the company "enables educators to assess learning, identify needs, align targeted supports, and monitor growth for each and every student." Here's the text of the letter sent to parents and/or guardians with students in the district, which serves approximately 64,000 students at eighty-plus schools.
Dear Parent/Guardian —Westword reached out to Illuminate Education but has not yet received a response; Westword also asked the district if it will potentially implement new security measures to prevent such a breach from happening again, and what potential costs might be associated with such an effort. DCSD spokesperson Paula Hans didn't address these questions in her response. "We are one of many affected — this is a national issue and several Colorado school districts are impacted," she said. "We sent [the letter] as a courtesy notice to our impacted families to let them know they would be receiving a letter from Illuminate and that it is legitimate." In addition, she offered a side note about which Westword didn't inquire: "We do not collect SSNs [Social Security numbers]."
Illuminate Education is an education company that provides applications and technology support to schools and school districts across the country, including the Douglas County School District (DCSD). Unfortunately, Illuminate Education recently informed us that some of their products were affected by a data security incident. Illuminate has determined that an unauthorized third party gained access to a dataset containing student information belonging to schools and school districts nationwide. Illuminate has indicated that your student's data may have been affected.
As a result, you will soon receive a letter in the mail with additional information about the incident as well as Illuminate Education's ongoing response. Illuminate Education has advised that they are not aware of any actual or attempted misuse of your child's information. However, we take the privacy of student data very seriously and want you to be able to immediately take additional steps to protect your child's data should you wish to do so.
You will receive additional information from Illuminate Education via U.S. mail. When you receive the letter, please review it carefully and keep it for future reference. That letter will include steps you can take to further protect your child's information, such as how to enroll in complimentary access to 12 months of identity monitoring services. In the meantime, the federal government has a website with tips on what to do if your (or your child's data) is ever exposed, lost or stolen that you may find helpful.
Because this event involved Illuminate's network, we do not have any additional information beyond what Illuminate has provided. However, if you have additional questions, Illuminate Education has set up a dedicated assistance line at (833) 749-1673 which is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. EST.
Sincerely,
Douglas County School District
Click to read Holmes's ruling in TEGNA, Inc. v. Ioana Marin, the public-records administrator for the Douglas County School District.
