Fairfax Schools Monitor Sues Fairfax Schools

Fairfax Schools Monitor filed suit today against Fairfax County Public Schools and its Superintendent, Scott Braband, to require them to produce a record that has been withheld from disclosure.

During the past few months, we have been using the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) to obtain documents revealing the inner workings of the school system.  Among many others, we asked for a copy of the video-conferenced presentation that Ibram X. Kendi (“Kendi”) made to school principals and administrators at the kick-off session of the 2020-2021 school year in August 2020.  Kendi, as explained in previous posts on this site, is a prominent proponent of Critical Race Theory.  See “Who Is Ibram X. Kendi,” Dec. 19, 2021, and “Ibram X. Kendi in Fairfax Public Schools,” Dec. 21, 2021.  The topic of Kendi’s lecture was “How to Be an Anti-Racist Educator.”  He was paid $20,000 for his one-hour session, which required no travel on his part.  We were naturally curious to see what Kendi said to the leaders of Fairfax County Schools, and how the leaders might have reacted to what he said.

Although FCPS has been forthcoming on many of our FOIA requests, we were stonewalled on this one.  The contract between Kendi and FCPS contained a confidentiality clause that required FCPS to withhold from the public any access to the videotape.  In addition, Kendi asserted in the contract that he would have an exclusive copyright to any recording of the session.

We attempted to persuade FCPS that neither the confidentiality clause nor the alleged copyright created a valid exemption from FOIA’s mandate that public records be disclosed to the public.  Our arguments were to no avail, and FCPS gave us a final decision on January 11, refusing to give us a copy of the videotape.

Therefore, we filed suit today in the Fairfax County General District Court, asking for a writ of mandamus compelling disclosure of the videotape.  A copy of the court filing is HERE and HERE.

A hearing date has been set for next week, January 19, 2022.  We will keep you posted.