Officials with the Goldwater Institute say the National Education Association, the huge teachers’ union that works within states and nationally, has retreated from its campaign to “silence” parent Nicole Solas, who just wanted to know what her daughter would be taught in kindergarten.
The union had filed “a legally baseless lawsuit” against her, going so far “as to seek emergency relief from the court to circumvent the public records law and prevent Nicole from receiving public information,” the institute explained Monday.
But the NEA now has withdrawn its demands.
“Nicole has contended since the union first filed this case that the union has no standing and no legal right to bring the action. The union’s voluntary withdraw of its motion appears to recognize the union’s flimsy legal standing,” the institute reported.
It was earlier this year that Solas started requesting public records requests to find out her daughter’s kindergarten curriculum in Rhode Island, the institute explained. But she was “stonewalled and even threatened with legal action. The Goldwater Institute made an additional records request on her behalf—and in response, the South Kingstown School Committee hit her with a $74,000 bill to get the information she sought.”
Additionally, the NEA had demanded a court order to direct the South Kingstown School Committee to stop responding to Solas’ records requests.
The removal of that demand now means the school “must still meet its statutory deadlines and other requirements to respond to Nicole’s public records requests,” the Institute said.
“Nicole and every parent has every right to know what is being taught in their children’s classrooms,” said Goldwater Institute Director of National Litigation Jon Riches, who represents Solas. “The union’s reprehensible attempt to harass and intimate Nicole and other parents was seen today for what it is—a legally baseless assault that will not stand.”
Solas explained, “The public information I’m seeking is not and should not be a government secret, and I will continue to stand up for my right to know what is taught in our children’s schools.”
The NEA’s attack on Solas was highlighted by the fact the massive union has a $300 million budget, and was using it to attack the Rhode Island mom.
Solas, concerned like many parents about the move toward politically biased curriculum in schools, had emailed the principal of her school in the South Kingstown School District asking for the kindergarten curriculum.
Specifically she wanted to know if it would include teaching children those political biases.
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