{"id":4422,"date":"2023-07-25T13:25:17","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T13:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4422"},"modified":"2023-07-25T14:10:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T14:10:38","slug":"will-and-parent-sue-to-obtain-document-withheld-by-school-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4422","title":{"rendered":"WILL and Parent Sue to Obtain Document Withheld by School District"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-seeks-school-document-withheld-from-parents\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Statement read aloud to students in several classrooms concealed from parents by Eau Claire Area School District<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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The News:\u00a0<\/strong>A local parent, along with the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), have filed a complaint<\/a> with a judge in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, after the school refused to provide a copy of a statement that the district acknowledges was read aloud to students in several classrooms.<\/div>\n
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Parents from the Eau Claire Area School District are simply asking what was read to their children, and they have so far been kept in the dark. Both WILL and our client requested a copy of the script read to students under our state open records law.<\/div>\n
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The Quotes:\u00a0<\/strong>WILL Associate Counsel, Cory Brewer, stated, \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous for a school district to refuse to produce a statement that was read out loud to dozens of minor students in several district classrooms. What was told to these kids should be readily accessible to parents.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Leah Buchman, Eau Claire parent and plaintiff, stated,\u00a0\u201cAll I am asking is for the school district to provide what was told to my children and their peers in the classroom. As a parent, it\u2019s my responsibility to help my kids understand all that life throws their way, and I do not understand why it has taken the school district so long to update parents.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Background:\u00a0<\/strong>On the morning of June 5, 2023, the second-to-last day of the school year, all orchestra students at Northstar Middle School were required to report to the orchestra room during homeroom. Once there, they found orchestra teacher Jacob Puccio, a school counselor, and the District\u2019s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion director, Dang Yang.<\/div>\n
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Students were told that Puccio would be undergoing a gender transition from male to female. In addition, a scripted statement was read to multiple classes of elementary and high school music students in the district, including North High School and at least three elementary schools (Sam Davey Elementary, Locust Lane Elementary, and Northwoods Elementary). The statement was crafted by the District specifically to ensure that students received information in a particular way, but to date, parents have no details about what their children were told.<\/div>\n
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After these statements were read, Leah Buchman, who has children both in the middle school orchestra and high school band, requested a copy of the script. That request was denied, with the District\u2019s attorney claiming that the document could not be disclosed because an investigation was underway into whether any \u201cemployee acted improperly with respect to the June 6 [sic] events.\u201d WILL has since sent a public records request asking only for the script read to the high school band class.<\/div>\n
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WILL Seeking Answers for Weeks:\u00a0<\/strong>WILL\u2019s request for the statement was denied, and the District provided the same reasoning for the denial. Unfortunately, this \u201cinvestigation\u201d appears to have not even started yet, and given that the event occurred over a month ago, this raises a question of whether the District is simply stonewalling to prevent the release of this information to parents.<\/div>\n
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Read More Here:<\/strong><\/div>\n