E-mails containing critical + race + theory or white + privilege
| Submitted | July 22, 2021 |
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Communications
From: Hal Flak
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Ohio Open Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
(Dr. Kyle Ramey, Superintendent ramey.kyle@oakwoodschools.org, 937-297-5332)
All e-mails under the control of the Oakwood City School District that may be found using the following search terms:
E-mails containing:
critical + race + theory OR
white + privilege OR
Panorama OR
Survey
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 10 business days.
Sincerely,
Hal Flak
From: Hal Flak
Dear Dr. Ramey,
No correspondence has been received acknowledging this request.
We look forward to receiving your reply by August 3, 2021.
Please note that “if a court determines that the public office or the person responsible for public records failed to comply … the relator shall be entitled to an award of all court costs and may receive an award of attorney fees and/or statutory damages” and that destruction of records is a violation of ORC 149.351.
From: Oakwood City School District
Hal Flak,
Oakwood City Schools has received your request for:
All e-mails under the control of the Oakwood City School District that may
be found using the following search terms:
E-mails containing:
critical + race + theory OR
white + privilege OR
Panorama OR
Survey
I am responding to your request dated July 22, 2021 under Ohio's Public
Records Act, Chapter 149, of the Ohio Revised Code. Clarification is
needed concerning your request for all emails under the control of Oakwood
City Schools containing the phrase "critical race theory" or "white
privilege." Please provide a time frame for emails you are requesting.
I am denying your requests for emails containing the terms "panorama" or
"survey" on the basis that they are overly broad. State ex rel. Dillery v.
Icsman, 92 Ohio St.3d 312, 2001-Ohio-193, 750 N.E.2d 156; Kanter v. City of
Cleveland Hts., Ct. of Cl. No. 2018-01092PQ, 2018-Ohio-4592.
Thank you,
Dan Schall
From: Hal Flak
Thank you for your reply.
Please apply the following dates: 1 March 2021 to 3 August 2021.
I hereby appeal the denial of the following search terms:
"I am denying your requests for emails containing the terms "panorama" or "survey" on the basis that they are overly broad. State ex rel. Dillery v. Icsman, 92 Ohio St.3d 312, 2001-Ohio-193, 750 N.E.2d 156; Kanter v. City of Cleveland Hts., Ct. of Cl. No. 2018-01092PQ, 2018-Ohio-4592."
The term "panorama" is specifically in relation to "https://www.panoramaed.com/surveys" that the Oakwood Public Schools received a grant to perform. As such, this term is not over-broad and refers to a specific survey that the Oakwood Schools administered.
The term "survey" is in regards to the "panorama" survey that was administered by the Oakwood Public Schools, and therefore is not over-broad, as it pertains to a specific survey performed by the Oakwood Public Schools, and messages will likely reference "survey" as short for "panorama survey".
The request is specified for e-mails under the control of Oakwood City Schools, and therefore is limited in scope.
The request is date delimited.
The request is for digitally searchable documents, of which any modern e-mail software can easily provide, and therefore is indexable according to the manner that the records are stored.
In relation to State ex rel. Dillery v. Icsman, this caselaw bears no similarity to the current request and is not applicable. Dillery is in regards to requesting unbounded in time or type documents in relation to a criminal process where discovery is the appropriate venue.
In relation to Kanter v. City of Cleveland Hts., this caselaw bears no similarity to the current request and is not applicable. Kanter is in regards to Open Meetings Act and not Open Records Act.
Please note the the correct interpretation of the boolean terms specify a search where:
All of the words "critical", "race", and "theory" appear in the subject and / or body of a single e-mail message, but it is not required to be as a contiguous phrase. The words may be separated by any number of words or characters or appear in any order.
The boolean search term is ALL OF THE FOLLOWING: CRITICAL and RACE and THEORY
but not the search term CRITICAL RACE THEORY which would require all of the words to appear in succession.
In the same manner, "white" and "privilege" appear in the subject and/or body of a single e-mail message, but it is not required to be as a contiguous phrase.
In the same manner "panorama" appears in the subject or body of a single e-mail message.
In the same manner "survey" appears in the subject or body of a single e-mail message.
All of the search terms should be case-insensitive.
IF you do not reverse the denial of "panorama" or "survey", please specify why in good faith:
1) Why the uncommon term "panorama" as it is known to apply to the name of a specific survey administered by the Oakwood City Schools is overbroad.
2) Why the term "survey", which is a term that would not commonly be expected to appear in e-mail messages apart from in relation to the "panorama" survey that was recently administered by the Oakwood City Schools is overbroad. Given a recently administered "panorama" survey, public record e-mails discussing the panorama survey may simply refer to it as the "survey".
I appreciate your compliance in good-faith as is required by the Ohio Open Records Law.
Please note that “if a court determines that the public office or the person responsible for public records failed to comply … the relator shall be entitled to an award of all court costs and may receive an award of attorney fees and/or statutory damages” and that destruction of records is a violation of ORC 149.351.
From: Hal Flak
Dear Mr. Schall:
This request was submitted on 23 July 2021.
A follow up message was sent on 30 July 2021.
You sent a reply on 2 August 2021 and on the same date I appealed your denial of the terms “panorama” and “survey” as over-broad.
As of 5 August 2021 no further correspondence has been received. 2 weeks have elapsed since the initial Ohio Open Records request was submitted without agreement or ongoing negotiation on production of records.
Does the Oakwood Public School District intend to be responsive to this Ohio Open Records request as is required by law?
If no reply is received, I intend to have my attorney file a writ of mandamus to compel production of all applicable public records in the Courts of Common Pleas.
If this action is successful, and I believe it will be, the court may award all court costs, attorney fees, and statutory damages.
Destruction of records is a violation of ORC 149.351 and may result in an award of $10,000 per record, which could amount to $10,000 per e-mail public record that is unlawfully destroyed.
From: Oakwood City School District
Thank you for the clarifications you have provided. We will search for the
records and respond to your requests for public records as soon as
reasonably possible.
Sincerely,
Dan Schall
From: Hal Flak
Thank you for your reply and assistance in furthering transparency which increases trust in government.
“A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” - James Madison, 1832
From: Hal Flak
Dear Mr. Schall:
I would like to clarify a response to the above regarding Kanter. The supreme court case you reference is in regards to a public records request. That case initially began with an open meetings claim in lower courts. However, in that regard Kanter supports rather than refutes this request, as this request as detailed is limited to a specific domain, has specified search terms, and does not require interpretation on behalf of the public agency, clearly meeting the requirements as put forth.
I also request, that for any redaction, the legal reason for the redaction be specified (e.g. student personally identifiable information or set of information, which would include names of parents). Redaction of staff e-mail addresses, names, or the like is generally not permitted. I anticipate few redactions would be required.
Second, could you provide a timeline by which the records will be available?
Thank you again for your assistance.
From: Hal Flak
Dear Mr. Schall:
This request was submitted on 23 July 2021.
The last communication was received on 08/06/2021. Today is 08/14/2021.
3 weeks have elapsed since the initial Ohio Open Records request was submitted.
Please provide an update with timeline for production of records.
The long delay is not good for community confidence and trust.
If no reply is received with a timeline, I will assume that you do not intend to comply with the open records law and will pursue legal remedy.
From: Hal Flak
Please provide an update on this request.
From:
I represent Oakwood City Schools, and am responding to the request for records that you sent to Dr. Kyle, Ramey, Superintendent, on or about July 22, 2021. The documents that are responsive to your request are contained in the following sharefile link, identified as OCS_PRR_ 07222021_000001 to OCS_PRR_ 07222021_010005.
https://bricker.sharefile.com/d-s1e27d854a18047c395ab8550658f5e11
As you requested, the District conducted searches of its emails for critical + race + theory, white + privilege, panorama, and survey. The search using the term “survey” returned 32,899 documents. The District then ran panorama + survey and the search results duplicated those received when the search was conducted using just the term “panorama.” We therefore concluded that your prior experience that emails discussing the panorama survey may simply refer to it as the “survey” did not apply to Oakwood Schools.
The search term “survey” is a generic and frequently used term in the educational environment, and does not identify with sufficient particularity the documents you are requesting. We continue to maintain that this request is overly broad. State ex rel. Davila v. City of East Liverpool (7th App. Dist., Columbiana, 2011), 2011 Ohio 1347. However, this contention has not resulted in the denial of your request, since the District’s search for “panorama + survey” identified all of emails discussing the panorama survey.
There are a handful of documents that contain redactions of personally identifiable student information. 42 U.S.C. §1232g; Ohio Rev. Code 3319.321. No redactions were made for any other reason.
Please address further inquiries regarding your request to me.
Janet Cooper
Janet Cooper
Of Counsel
BRICKER & ECKLER LLP
312 N. Patterson Blvd., Suite 200
Dayton, OH 45402
jcooper@bricker.com
937.478.4380
________________________________
Oakwood City School District
Ohio Open Records Law Office
20 RUBICON ROAD
OAKWOOD, OH 45409
August 19, 2021
This is a follow up to a previous request:
Please provide an update on this request.
View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/
Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 116575
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.
---
On Aug. 14, 2021:
Subject: RE: Ohio Open Records Law Request: E-mails containing critical + race + theory or white + privilege
Dear Mr. Schall:
This request was submitted on 23 July 2021.
The last communication was received on 08/06/2021. Today is 08/14/2021.
3 weeks have elapsed since the initial Ohio Open Records request was submitted.
Please provide an update with timeline for production of records.
The long delay is not good for community confidence and trust.
If no reply is received with a timeline, I will assume that you do not intend to comply with the open records law and will pursue legal remedy.
---
On Aug. 9, 2021:
Subject: RE: Ohio Open Records Law Request: E-mails containing critical + race + theory or white + privilege
Dear Mr. Schall:
I would like to clarify a response to the above regarding Kanter. The supreme court case you reference is in regards to a public records request. That case initially began with an open meetings claim in lower courts. However, in that regard Kanter supports rather than refutes this request, as this request as detailed is limited to a specific domain, has specified search terms, and does not require interpretation on behalf of the public agency, clearly meeting the requirements as put forth.
I also request, that for any redaction, the legal reason for the redaction be specified (e.g. student personally identifiable information or set of information, which would include names of parents). Redaction of staff e-mail addresses, names, or the like is generally not permitted. I anticipate few redactions would be required.
Second, could you provide a timeline by which the records will be available?
Thank you again for your assistance.
---
On Aug. 7, 2021:
Subject: RE: Ohio Open Records Law Request: E-mails containing critical + race + theory or white + privilege
Thank you for your reply and assistance in furthering transparency which increases trust in government.
“A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” - James Madison, 1832
---
On Aug. 6, 2021:
Subject: Re: Ohio Open Records Law Request: E-mails containing critical + race + theory or white + privilege
Thank you for the clarifications you have provided. We will search for the
records and respond to your requests for public records as soon as
reasonably possible.
Sincerely,
Dan Schall
---
On Aug. 5, 2021:
Subject: RE: Ohio Open Records Law Request: E-mails containing critical + race + theory or white + privilege
Dear Mr. Schall:
This request was submitted on 23 July 2021.
A follow up message was sent on 30 July 2021.
You sent a reply on 2 August 2021 and on the same date I appealed your denial of the terms “panorama” and “survey” as over-broad.
As of 5 August 2021 no further correspondence has been received. 2 weeks have elapsed since the initial Ohio Open Records request was submitted without agreement or ongoing negotiation on production of records.
Does the Oakwood Public School District intend to be responsive to this Ohio Open Records request as is required by law?
If no reply is received, I intend to have my attorney file a writ of mandamus to compel production of all applicable public records in the Courts of Common Pleas.
If this action is successful, and I believe it will be, the court may award all court costs, attorney fees, and statutory damages.
Destruction of records is a violation of ORC 149.351 and may result in an award of $10,000 per record, which could amount to $10,000 per e-mail public record that is unlawfully destroyed.
---
On July 22, 2021:
Subject: Ohio Open Records Law Request: E-mails containing critical + race + theory or white + privilege
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Ohio Open Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
(Dr. Kyle Ramey, Superintendent ramey.kyle@oakwoodschools.org, 937-297-5332)
All e-mails under the control of the Oakwood City School District that may be found using the following search terms:
E-mails containing:
critical + race + theory OR
white + privilege OR
Panorama OR
Survey
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 10 business days.
Sincerely,
Hal Flak
View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/
Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 116575
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.
-
OCS_PRR_07222021_000001_to_OCS_PRR_07222021_010005
From: Hal Flak
Hi,
Thanks so much for your help with this request! I really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Hal Flak