The largest teachers union in the United States sued a Rhode Island mother on Monday and again on Thursday because she seeks more than 200 records about critical race theory and gender ideology at her child’s school.
The National Education Association Rhode Island claims in the lawsuit filed on Monday that Nicole Solas requested too many documents and that the items she wants cannot be given without violating teacher privacy, Fox News reported.
“We are asking the Court to conduct a balancing test to determine whether our members’ privacy rights outweigh the public interest,” said NEARI Deputy Director Jennifer Azevedo. “We believe they do, and those records should either not be disclosed or should be redacted accordingly.”
Solas submitted a public-records request, so none of the documents should contain private information about teachers, although such requests can cover things like email sent from teachers’ work accounts.
It would be the responsibility of public employees not to transmit potentially sensitive information using their work-owned accounts and devices.
William Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell University, said the lawsuit made little sense on its face.
“The unions purport to be protecting their members non-public documents and information, but the public records law only applies to ‘public records‘ as defined under the statute,” he said.
In another lawsuit filed on Thursday, the teachers union asked the court to let them ignore Solas’s records request while the case proceeds.
Solas tweeted about both lawsuits.
I just got served with a lawsuit from the teacher union NEARI. Throwing down the gauntlet, are we? Game on. pic.twitter.com/9WSpEO14Zy
— Nicole Solas (@Nicoletta0602) August 4, 2021
Today the teacher union NEA filed ANOTHER lawsuit against me – this time a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction. Will teacher unions bullying moms be an everyday thing now? pic.twitter.com/6WxQ8KTAFD
— Nicole Solas (@Nicoletta0602) August 5, 2021
The second complaint came in response to the case’s increased publicity.
NEARI told the court that “teachers who are identifiable and have engaged in discussions about things like critical race theory will then be the subject of teacher harassment by national conservative groups opposed to critical race theory.”
Even if the court rules to release the public documents, the union still requests that the court allow it to redact “information which may lead to the identity of such teachers.”
The National Education Association’s lawsuits reflect its commitment to battle “anti-CRT rhetoric” and promote far-left racial theories.
The NEA has promised to “research the organizations attacking educators doing anti-racist work and/or use the research already done and put together a list of resources and recommendations for state affiliates, locals and individual educators to utilize when they are attacked.”
Solas became concerned about her kindergarten-age daughter’s attendance at a public school in the South Kingstown School District when the elementary school principal told her that teachers do not call students “boys” or “girls.”
When Solas further pressed the principal, she was told that it is “common practice,” according to her op-ed in Legal Insurrection.
Solar could not view her child’s kindergarten curriculum even after contacting the “principal, the school committee, the superintendent, the director of curriculum, and even the legal department at the Rhode Island Department of Education.”
Solas gained national attention by speaking at the South Kingstown School Committee meeting on June 2, Legal Insurrection reported.
“I had questions about her education, and you didn’t answer them,” she said.
“You told me to submit public record requests to answer my questions,” she continued. “I did what you told me, and now you’re holding a public meeting to discuss suing me for doing what you told me to do.”
In response to the public records request, the committee held a meeting to discuss “filing litigation against Nicole Solas to challenge the filing of over 160 APRA requests.”
