Auburn School District – Police and Law Enforcement Investigations - 2010-2020

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

I request an electronic copy of all RECORDS and WRITING (including emails, texts, telephone call logs, faxes, etc.) in the possession of Auburn School District regarding any police or law enforcement agency reports, complaints, or investigations for the years 2014 – 2020.

RCW 42.56.010(4) Definition of “Writing”
(4) "Writing" means handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, and every other means of recording any form of communication or representation including, but not limited to, letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combination thereof, and all papers, maps, magnetic or paper tapes, photographic films and prints, motion picture, film and video recordings, magnetic or punched cards, discs, drums, diskettes, sound recordings, and other documents including existing data compilations from which information may be obtained or translated.

https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=42.56.010

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Essa Advocate

Hello,

On 02-07-2020 you posted a question:

“In an attempt to narrow down this search, can you please clarify? Are you looking for a police report regarding an individual, or a group of individuals?”

Response:

Please begin by producing responsive records in REVERSE chronological order by year, i.e. 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 - any Agreements, Programs, incidents, complaints, awards, meetings, reports, investigations, documents, communications (to or from), EMAILS (to or from), documents, etc. (RECORDS and WRITING as defined by RCW 42.56.010(4)) in the in the care, custody, control, or possession of Auburn School District referencing (but not limited to) any of the following LOCAL law enforcement agencies:

King County Sheriff
Auburn Police Department
Kent Police Department
Pacific Police Department
Sumner Police Department

The following State law enforcement agencies:

Washington State Patrol
Washington State Child Protective Services

The following Federal law enforcement agencies:

Federal Bureau of Investigation
United States Secret Service
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Drug Enforcement Agency
Immigration and Naturalization Service
Department of Homeland Security
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
United States Marshals Service
Federal Protective Service

Examples of responsive documents to be produced would include (but not be limited to) the following:

• Any Emails between Auburn School District employees and any King County Sheriff's deputy or detective (or any other KCSO employee).
• Any meeting minutes, notes, agreements, programs, handouts, incident reports, referencing the Auburn police Department.
• Citizen complaints, investigations, internal Auburn School District referrals to any of the above law enforcement agencies.
• Email, Faxes, Letters, from the Washington State patrol to Auburn School District regarding any person or topic.
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests addressed to the Auburn School District regarding any person or topic.
• Police reports sent to Auburn School District via email. Police reports archived in Auburn School District files. Auburn School district meeting minutes referencing law enforcement activities in the district.

Again, these are just examples of what records would be considered responsive to this request, this is by no means a comprehensive list of all records that could be responsive.

Please email any questions you may have regarding this response for clarification.

Thank you.

Hello Mr. Aarstad,

Thank you for your communication. Your diligence in gathering responsive records is most appreciated.

Producing records in installments over time is perfectly acceptable.

If you would prefer to produce all 225,000 emails in Microsoft Exchange .pst format that would satisfy the Public Records Request and may be an economical salutation for the District.

To export data in this fashion should only take 20-30 minutes. Providing the exported data archive electronically would take about the same amount of time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

ACTION REQUIRED: INADEQUATE EXEMPTION REDACTION LOG – REQUEST FOR COMPLETE EXEMPTION LOGS OR UNREDACTED PUBLIC RECORDS WAC 44-14-04004(5) AND RCW 42.56.210(3)

November 14, 2020

Hello Mr. Aarstad,

Thank you for providing records responsive to this public records request.

The “Exemption Log” the District supplied with these public records on 10-12-2020 is not adequate. Please provide an accurate exemption/withholding log for the records the District has redacted, or alternatively provide the records in unredacted form.

The District has improperly redacted information and claimed exemptions in unidentified locations across each of pages of documents the District has produced in response to this public records request.

For example:

The District produced record names “Luke Emails Part 1 Pages 1-3200” pertains to the District’s production of 3200 pages of email records consolidated into one (1) single Adobe .pdf file named “Luke Emails_Part1_Redacted.pdf.”

A link to the 3200 pages of redacted emails compiled by the District to one (1) .pdf file named “Luke Emails_Part1_Redacted.pdf” is attached to this communication as follows:

https://bayfiles.com/tdZ1Lapfp4/Luke_Emails_Part1_Redacted_pdf

this file is also contained in the District’s ORIGINAL LINK:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10RPymLHqpv0s87uTGwBe0YVfO5q-lEDD

The District claimed the following exemptions in this file across pages 1-3200 in file “Luke Emails_Part1_Redacted.pdf” as well as other files also produced in this PRR : 20 U.S.C. § 1232g (FERPA); RCW 42.56.070(1); RCW 42.56.230(1) Parent info, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g (FERPA); RCW 42.56.070(1); RCW 42.56.230(1) Student info, RCW 42.56.250 (4) Employee Info.

QUESTIONS:

Which of these three exemptions is the District claiming in this file and on which page number?

Is the District claiming a single exemption or more than one exemption, and if so on which page?

On which part of each page of the 1-3200 pages is each of the three exemptions applied?

Not all of the 1-3200 pages in this file are redacted.

Some of the redactions are in black ink and some of the redactions appear to have a light blue box with a question marks or an x in the middle.

How are these exemptions denoted?

What is the brief explanation for each of these exemptions?

In each of these attached public records files the District has produced, please mark next to each redaction on each page of the document, the specific exemption the District is claiming applies and provide a brief explanation for the specific exemption and how the withholding applies to the redaction.

If the District has withheld pages in their entirety please indicate this fact, and provide a brief explanation of the exemption(s) applied, and the number of pages entirely withheld:

Bear Emails Pages 1-407
Bush Emails Pages 1-1252
JSmith 1 Emails Pages 1-2356
JSmith 2 Emails Pages 1-2574
JSmith 3 Emails Pages 1-2373
JSmith 4 Emails Pages 1-2426
Luke Emails Part 1 Pages 1-3200
Luke Emails Part 2 Pages 1-3200
Luke Emails Part 3 Pages 1-3200
Luke Emails Part 4 Pages 1-3200
Luke Emails Part 5 Pages 1-3200
Luke Emails Part 6 Pages 1-696

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10RPymLHqpv0s87uTGwBe0YVfO5q-lEDD

https://bayfiles.com/nfleMap1pb/Bear_Emails_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/5cndM1p3p2/Bush_Emails_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/FfscM6p3pe/JSmith_1_Emails_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/vfzfMfp9p5/JSmith_2_Emails_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/B7b3O4p7p3/JSMith_3_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/tdZ1Lapfp4/Luke_Emails_Part1_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/RfbfNbp1p1/Luke_Emails_Part2_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/B2QfM3p1pa/Luke_Emails_Part3_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/56U5Ncpdpb/Luke_Emails_Part4_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/L0T1Nap4p4/Luke_Emails_Part5_Redacted_pdf

https://bayfiles.com/b7Y8Ncp9pb/Luke_Emails_Part6_Redacted_pdf

WAC 44-14-04004(5)(b)

“If a record is redacted electronically, by deleting a field of data or in any other way, the agency must identify the redaction and state the basis for the claimed exemption as required by RCW 42.56.210(3).”

Please also provide a brief index representative of these responsive public records the District has produced describing all District locations searched and personnel queried.

Thank you.