A Wisconsin school district is facing a lawsuit after allegedly refusing a public records request to provide parents with a copy of a speech delivered to students about a teacher transitioning genders.
Jacob Puccio, an orchestra teacher at Northstar Middle School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, told his classes that he would be transitioning to the female gender and asked students to refer to him as “Ms. Puccio” from that point forward.
During the trans teacher's coming-out story, middle schoolers were told that orchestra instructor Jacob Puccio (pictured below), a biological man now-named "Carly Grace," will be undergoing a male-to-female gender transition and that students should address him as "Ms. Puccio." pic.twitter.com/uaz0STMdGV
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A scripted statement about his transition was also reportedly read to multiple classes at elementary and high schools in the Eau Claire Area School District (ECASD). When one parent, Leah Buchman, found out about the incident, she requested to receive a copy of the speech to see what her children had been told.
After placing multiple inquiries with the school for a copy of the speech, each of which the school refused, she filed a lawsuit alongside the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL). The lawsuit alleges that ECASD was in violation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Wisconsin statutes for unfairly denying a request for public information.
Buchman, a mother of two students in the middle school orchestra and one in high school band, said in communication with the high school band instructor that she wanted to see what her kids had been told so that she could have a conversation with them about it.
“I am caught in the middle of a topic that I should have been the one to first introduce to my sixth graders when they were mature enough to understand instead of the school so trying to back pedal (sic) and figure out what all was said to them so I can talk with them,” Buchman said in her email, which was filed as evidence along with the lawsuit.
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An attorney for ECASD reportedly claimed that an ongoing investigation into the handling of the announcement prevented the district from turning over the records. The district neglected to identify when the alleged investigation began or who its subject is. The lawsuit asserts that the exemption in Wisconsin state code does not apply in this case because the record in question is not an employee personnel record.
“It’s ridiculous for a school district to refuse to produce a statement that was read out loud to dozens of minor students in several district classrooms. What was told to these kids should be readily accessible to parents,” Cory Brewer, WILL associate counsel, said in a news release.
Buchman said that she just wants to be able to help her children understand the world around them, but the school district is hindering that goal.
“All I am asking is for the school district to provide what was told to my children and their peers in the classroom. As a parent, it’s my responsibility to help my kids understand all that life throws their way, and I do not understand why it has taken the school district so long to update parents,” Buchman said.
WILL also filed a suit against ECASD last year, for a gender identity policy that told staff that “parents are not entitled to know their kids’ identities. That knowledge must be earned.” The suit was dismissed by a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, and WILL is currently in the appeals process.
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