Thomas More Society attorneys recently filed a 10-count lawsuit on behalf of two parents in the Kirkwood School District, challenging the Kirkwood School District leadership’s abusive handling of public record requests under Missouri’s Sunshine Law. The petition filed on May 23, 2024, charges the school district and its Superintendent, David Ulrich, with intentionally withholding public records, in violation of Missouri’s Sunshine Law.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Superintendent David Ulrich and the Kirkwood School District, by and through Custodian of Records Laura Heidenreich, violated Missouri’s Sunshine Law at least 10 times within the past year by failing to provide open records when requested. The petition outlines how the school district, senior administration, and Board of Education members stalled communications, lied to parents, and falsely blamed students for illegal communications from the school district.

Missouri’s Sunshine Law straightforwardly requires public entities to disclose public records upon request in a timely fashion. Kirkwood School District educates nearly 6,000 students each year, across five elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. It has an operating budget of approximately $85 million per year and maintains a technology staff of more than a dozen employees. Yet, the school district has claimed that it is unable to locate a multitude of electronic and other public records, including e-mails and surveys that school district employees sent to thousands of students.

Mary Catherine Martin, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel, stated: “Parents have a basic, constitutional right to be involved in their children’s lives, education, and formation. School administrators have no right to deliberately obstruct parents’ demands for transparency. It is a tragedy that parents have to resort to public records requests to seek information from their children’s schools, let alone lawsuits when those requests are denied. This is not about just a few ‘missing’ records; this petition recounts dozens of violations in a single year, led by Superintendent Ulrich himself. The issues raised by this lawsuit include policy and law violations that should be acted upon by the Board of Education, the Missouri Attorney General, the prosecuting attorney, and the police, yet Kirkwood School District continues to act with impunity, in part by keeping the public uninformed by ignoring and undermining Sunshine requests. Thomas More Society is determined to use any available means to help these private citizens restore respect for parents and families in Kirkwood School District, and we call upon these responsible authorities to start holding Kirkwood School District and Superintendent Ulrich accountable for following all policies and laws protecting students.”

Read the petition, filed by Thomas More Society attorneys in the Circuit Court of the County of St. Louis – 21st Judicial Circuit, in Rawlins, et al. v. Ulrich, et al., here.

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