Frequently Searched

Victory for Virginia Moms Who Challenged School District

November 16, 2021

Two Virginia moms who were silenced by the Fairfax County school district won a resounding victory in court this morning when a judge upheld their First Amendment rights and struck down the district’s unconstitutional attempts to shut down their speech.

“This is an important victory against the bullying tactics of school bureaucrats who have resorted to intimidation and harassment of parents who just want to do what’s best for their children,” said Timothy Sandefur, the Goldwater Institute attorney representing the pair.

Fairfax County mothers Debra Tisler and Callie Oettinger wanted to know how their school district was spending taxpayer dollars, especially given that the county has been in national news about its recent legal troubles. Debra filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how much the district was paying for its legal bills, and after the Board turned over 1,300 pages of documents, Callie posted some of them on her website specialeducationaction.com, after deleting any potentially confidential information.

Incredibly, the simple act of publishing public information online provoked a backlash from the school district, which sued Debra and Callie, demanding that they destroy the documents, remove them from their website, and replace them with heavily censored substitute documents. The reason: The district realized that the documents were embarrassing to school officials who have spent outrageous amounts of taxpayer money for legal representation and have been careless with private student information in the past.

Unfortunately, this case is just one of the latest examples of public school bureaucrats attacking parents for daring to ask questions about how tax dollars are being used and what is being taught in schools. But with the Goldwater Institute’s help, parents are fighting back. Represented by Sandefur and by Virginia attorney Ketan Bhirud of the firm Troutman Pepper, the two mothers argued that the Board’s demand contradicted the First Amendment, which protects the right of all citizens to publish documents they legally obtain from the government.  To bar the two from publishing the information was a “prior restraint,” which the Supreme Court has said is virtually never constitutional.

In today’s ruling the Fairfax County Circuit Court agreed.  Declaring the school board’s actions “about as much a prior restraint as there ever could be,” the court refused to censor Oettinger’s website.  The Board’s arguments that the information was secret, the court said, were “simply not relevant” and “almost frivolous.”

“We followed the law and asked to see documents we have a right to see,” Tisler said.  “And Callie was careful never to publish any student names or anything like that.  Yet the Board went after us because they wanted to make an example of us.  Well, the example is that parents have constitutional rights and the school boards their tax dollars pay for should respect those rights.”

The court also withdrew a September 30 order that barred the two mothers from disseminating the information they received—despite the fact that the documents in question were published on a different website two days before, and have all been available this entire time.

“This case is yet another example of Fairfax County abusing its power and wasting taxpayer money,” Oettinger said. “Debra and I never published any publicly identifiable information about students or school employees. We have always been much more careful with that information than the School Board—yet the Board sued us! Today, a judge agreed, ruled in our favor, and upheld our First Amendment rights.”

In addition to defending parents in court against extreme attacks by public school officials, the Goldwater Institute has developed an Academic Transparency law to ensure that parents know what is being taught in the classroom, including politically charged subjects like Critical Race Theory. Under Goldwater’s law, public schools are required to disclose to parents and the public a listing of the actual materials making their way in front of students in K-12.

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!