View Our E-Mail to Government Transparency Group Watchdog Wire

Check out our e-mail to the transparency group, Watchdog Wire.

Dear All -

We're a group of activists in the northern Cincinnati suburb of Fairfield, Ohio.  We organized after the tragedy of Emilie Olsen.  We have a Facebook page featuring lively debate and networking center for frustrated parents in our community.

You may have heard of Emilie's story.  Emilie was a 14 year-old student who committed suicide in December 2014.  Her friends and family claimed she was bullied to death.  Fairfield City Schools and local police denied this claim.  However, local media reports uncovered in May 2015 documents proving the district was notified about the bullying.  You can read more about that compelling WCPO story here.

Since the story broke in May that Fairfield City Schools was less than honest in Emilie's case, others have stepped forward to relay their own stories of bullying in the district.  One even tried to commit suicide herself, according to this news story.  We have helped to even organize large crowds for Board of Education meetings to let the district know how upset we are about the issue of bullying in our schools.

Against this backdrop of activism, we contacted Fairfield City Schools by e-mail on July 30th, 2015, and requested the district e-mail activity for the accounts of several employees.  We requested e-mails for certain dates that were key in Emilie's case, and would substantiate the claims of her friends and family that school officials were notified about the harassment she was enduring.  We can forward you this note, if you would like. 

We have attached an Excel spreadsheet detailing what records we requested, and what has actually been provided.  As you can probably see, very few of the records we requested have been provided to us in the nearly 6 months since we filed the request Under the Ohio Open Records Law, §149.43 et seq .

Since our records request was filed in July, Fairfield City Schools has been sued in federal court by Emilie's parents.  You can read more about the story here. In addition to suing the school district, the Superintendent, Board of Education, and several administrators and staff were named personally in the suit.  The case has yet to go to trial.

We have no idea what is taking so long for the district to fulfill our records request.  A cynical person might think the district is purposefully obstructing our ability to review these public records because they are afraid what the e-mails may reveal while they are facing pending litigation.  From our reading of the open records statute, it makes no provision that would allow the district to refuse our request, even if it means negative publicity during a lawsuit.

Our purpose in writing you today is to let you know what we're experiencing in dealing with Fairfield City Schools.  We would also appreciate any advice you might be able to offer.  Our next step is going to be to inform the State Board of Education, Federal Department of Education, and the Ohio Attorney General to see if they can assist us in getting Fairfield City Schools to comply with the law. 

Thank you for your time and attention.