Woodland Park School District, Board of Education sued for violating teachers’ right to free speech

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KRDO) -- A federal lawsuit against the Woodland Park School District and Board of Education said its recently adopted policies silenced teachers, violating their First Amendment rights.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday by the Colorado Education Association, a state-wide labor union representing more than 39,000 educators, including in the Woodland Park School District. They said the lawsuit is to “remedy violations of the constitutional rights” of Woodland Park School District teachers.

“It was important that we take a stand to ensure that educators have the ability to have that voice for their working conditions as well as their students' learning conditions,” said Amie Baca-Oehlert, the president of the Colorado Education Association (CEA).

In February, the Woodland Park School District changed its policy for employees’ communication with the public. It was revised again in March. Three paragraphs were added to the original policy that hadn’t been changed since 1998:

No employee shall be interviewed by the media regarding school operations or student matters or offer a quote without the prior written consent of the superintendent.

No social media posts regarding district or school decisions will be made by employees of the school district in their capacity as employees without prior written consent of the district communications office.

Violation of this policy will be considered to be insubordination.

The lawsuit states this revised policy is a violation of the teacher’s First Amendment rights to free speech.

“When you are being told that you're not able, as a private citizen, to post things on social media, to attend school board meetings and speak as a private citizen, that's infringing on their rights,” Baca-Oehlert said.

The lawsuit also claims the revision of the policy violated the state’s open meeting laws. It said the district didn’t notify employees of the policy change until after it was made and there were no meeting minutes or agenda about the policy revisions.

This year the Woodland Park School District enrolled its employees in the Professional Association of Colorado Educators, which claims to be a statewide non-union, professional educators' organization.

However, according to emails between teachers and the Human Resources department, not everyone wanted to be enrolled with the organization.

“Now the district will be listing me as a member in an organization I am completely against and giving them money on my behalf to further their agenda,” one teacher wrote to the Human Resources department.

The lawsuit claims teachers have tried to opt out of their membership but the district has denied it. The CEA said this is also a violation of First Amendment rights.

“When a district is forcing its employees to be a member of an organization that creates problems,” Baca-Oehlert said.

Woodland Park teachers declined to comment on this story for fear of retaliation given the district’s policies.

Kenn Witt, the Woodland Park School District Superintendent, called the lawsuit a “coordinated political attack by various actors and progressive groups.” He claimed they are “attempting to intimidate and to wear out the district simply due to its recent pivot to parent and student-friendly policies and practices.”

“I believe the employees who may have been concerned about the KDDA policy are those who have been historically conditioned to feel free to take private HR and student matters into the public using social media,” Witt said in a statement. “Whatever the court may decide in this case, the striking lack of professionalism and ethics on the part of those who are feigning to be offended is heartbreaking.”

The CEA said it filed the lawsuit because the “turmoil” within the Woodland Park School District is affecting student education.

“When you have that turnover, people leaving, but also that turmoil and that anxiety that's just present in the district, that's felt by students,” Baca-Oehlert said.

The CEA said about 35% of staff have left the Woodland Park School District in the last year. This is evident by the number of resignations posted on the school board’s agenda.

“We've seen a large amount of turnover in that school district because of policies such as this,” Baca-Oehlert said. “That is the real harm that's being done here — the harm to students and that community when we see quality educators fleeing that district.”

Witt declined to comment further when 13 Investigates asked why the policy was changed earlier this year.

The lawsuit is asking the U.S. District Court of Colorado for several resolutions, including removing the policy that “punishes school-based employees if they speak publicly as private citizens about matters of public concern regarding the school district, declare that no employee who makes statements about their employment as private citizens on matters of public concern can be disciplined, terminated or retaliated against and declare that attempting to compel members to join PACE is unconstitutional and an unlawful use of taxpayer money.”