The Dangers Knocking At Our Doors

Upper Moreland is at a crossroads of representation in our community. We have seen a volatile uptick in outrage and vitriol at our local school board meetings, mostly regarding disagreement with how the School District has decided to function in a pandemic, but in other areas as well. Those not paying close attention might not see a connection to a larger agenda, but a deeper delve makes it abundantly clear exactly what type of attack we are under.

A dangerous mistake is to think that anything in the last year -- The January 6th Insurrection, school board protests, etc -- is random. The plan to destroy democratic institutions has been underway for years, and it's ramping up heading into 2022.

Our School District has been inundated with frivolous Right to Know requests for the past year and a half, costing our district and taxpayers over $30,000. These Requests are largely fishing expeditions, looking for “collusion” between the teachers union and the administration that doesn’t exist, seeking access to personal electronic devices of board members and administrators and seeking any information from the district related to anti-racism, Black Lives Matter and George Floyd. The sources of these requests range from outside influences, such as Dr. James Mollick, a known contributor to conservative campaigns, who has used this strategy to cost Methacton school district thousands of dollars in legal challenges, the right-wing, Media, PA based “news” site Broad and Liberty and most disturbingly of all, the Republican school director candidates. Taken separately, these requests may look like they are for a legitimate reason, and may even fall under the intended purpose of the Right To Know Laws, but it doesn’t take too much work to connect the dots, and see that there are larger forces in play here.

These requests are not coincidental. It has been largely documented that the Keeping Kids in School PAC, funded by Bucks County’s Paul Martino, a Federalist Society member, who donated $10,000 to the Republican School Director candidates in UM, is part of a state-wide effort to take over school boards, funnel funding away from public schools and leverage pandemic struggles to push a political agenda. This PAC works in conjunction with Right Wing activists groups in Montgomery County, such as Parents for In Person Education and Moms for Liberty, that are spreading disinformation, encouraging large group disruption at school board meetings and spreading hate and lies surrounding LGBTQIA+ and diversity, equity and inclusion policy and practices. Kaitlyn McLaughlin and Republican write-in candidate Jenny Candando are both outspoken members of these online groups, where they sow dissension and outright attacks on our public schools. By their own words, they have participated in Right to Know requests aimed at costing our district taxpayer money, and encouraged others to cost their districts money, by moving their children to charter schools, to “Hit districts where it hurts,” because public schools have to pay for the cyber charter education for children in their districts. Each attempt to cost the district money is a page from the Keeping Kids in School PAC playbook designed to destroy public school education and promote charter schools, and the UM Republican candidates are happily accepting the funds to do just that.

Each extensive request requires specialized software to filter through thousands of pages, gigs and metadata to find information even remotely related to these requests. That information then needs to be reviewed by attorneys, page by page, to ensure that private, privileged and confidential information related to district employees and students aren’t wrongfully disclosed. The man hours and legal fees are necessary to protect the district from further suit. Then, when requests are made for native files and metadata, additional IT costs are added. These requests are designed to cost the school district money. They then weaponize the district following the rules on confidentiality to make it sound like they're not being open, when the reality is, they are just trying to follow the law and not open the district up to liability.

Even the Republican majority of the State Legislature has recognized the need for a legislative change to protect the Office of Open Records from vexatious requestors abusing the Right to Know Laws. Vexatious requesters are individuals who use the RTKL with malicious intent to intimidate, harass, or punish an agency, which results in bogging down the agency and wasting taxpayer resources. School districts and local governments have seen a small but steady increase in recent years in the number of individuals using the law in this manner. Dr. James Mollick, a Lansdale resident, has cost Upper Moreland Township School District $7,000 with a right to know request seeking access to personal emails, text messages and Facebook posts of the Upper Moreland School board, administration and staff in an eight page request. Similarly, Jon Lindstrom, the husband of GOP candidate Lindsay Lindstrom, submitted a request also seeking access to personal emails and laptops of the board and administration. Kaitlyn McLaughlin’s own Right to Know requests have cost the district upwards of $5,000 on a fishing expedition to fuel a conspiracy theory that has yielded nothing. These are the Right to Know requests with malicious intent to intimidate, harass and punish an agency that SB 552 aims to protect school districts against. Under Senate Bill 552, sponsored by Republican Senator Dush from Jefferson County, vexatious requesters would be identified through several factors, and the OOR process would include information gathering, hearings, and possible mediation before a final opinion is rendered. Relief could include an OOR order that the agency need not comply with a request from the vexatious requester for up to one year. The State Senate has passed this bill which now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Each frivolous claim, each lawsuit, when information sought doesn’t exist, and every purposeful expenditure of money away from our schools not only costs our taxpayers money, it costs our children. It takes money away from resources needed to support the Mental Health of our children as they continue to navigate life through a pandemic. It costs cameras on buses, aimed at keeping our children safe. $30,000 mining for information that proves nothing is $30,000 not spent on a therapy dog for our youngest of students, many of whom have never known a “normal” school year. It’s money away from educational initiatives to bring our Districts rankings higher, which directly correlates to property value. It's impossible to prove a negative, so they can continue to drag out their public accusations indefinitely. Every action to destroy our School District hurts our entire community as a whole.

When we see national stories of gay pride flags being banned in schools, or teachers' libraries being vetted or required to show the opposing view of the Holocaust, that's what's coming to Upper Moreland if we aren't vigilant, if we aren't voting in every single election.

If you have pride in your community,a desire to be part of constructive problem solving and believe in public school education, the choice for School Directors is clear. Choose the Directors that are For Upper Moreland, not against it.