Attorney Curt Hartman is suing the Forest Hills Schools Board of Education for sending him a heavily redacted version of the district's ICE response plan after he submitted an open records request in February.
The lawsuit, filed in the Ohio Supreme Court a few weeks ago, alleges the school board and Forest Hills District Treasurer Alana Cropper violated their duties by not publicly sharing details of the district's internal response plan designed to prepare administrators, teachers and staff for encounters with immigration enforcement officers on school grounds.
Court records show the school district's spokesperson told Hartman via email that much of the information in the document was redacted because it was considered a security record, exempt from public disclosure, citing state law.
Section 149.433 of the Ohio Revised Code states that a security record for a public school or other public office is not subject to mandatory release if the record contains information for protecting a school against attack, interference or sabotage. The law also states that these same rules apply to responses to acts of terrorism.
These rules for public schools and offices went into effect in 2002, after Ohio Senate Bill 184, known at the time as the "terrorism bill," was signed into law after gaining bipartisan support following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The section was last amended in 2022.
Hartman argues in his complaint that the Board of Education's response is invalid because it labels ICE officers as terrorists or claims that officers enforcing immigration law are conducting an "attack" on the school district. He says the release of an unredacted response plan will benefit the public and ensure the Board of Education and Forest Hills officials operate openly.
"Simply stated, the school officials have attempted to equate law enforcement officers enforcing federal law to being nothing more than terrorists. It is shocking that such a Marxist attitude is now clearly in control at the Forest Hills School District," Hartman told WVXU in a statement.
The document, labeled "ICE Response Plan - FHSD," shares information about Ohio laws related to the release of student information and education records, law enforcement's access to schools, and explains different kinds of warrants, but most of the document's specific guidance for school employees interacting with ICE agents is redacted.
In a statement shared with WVXU, the school district stood by the redactions.
"The district is confident the redactions made to the ICE Response Plan document for purposes of safety and security of students and staff are legitimate under Ohio Revised Code 149.433, and the district will respond directly to these complaints in the courts," a portion of the statement reads.
Responding to a social media post from a former Forest Hills Board of Education member calling out the current Board, newly elected member Jeremy Ward wrote on Facebook that the plan was not politically motivated and created to prepare employees for the possibility of an encounter with ICE.
"As a public school employee for 20+ years, I've never received training or communication on what we are supposed to do if Immigration officers try to enter our schools, until this year," Ward wrote. "There is nothing more terrifying than being in charge of 20+ children when an emergency situation arises where no clear guidance has been communicated."
The school district has not yet filed a response to Curtman's complaint with the court.
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