By Suzie Glassman/NewsBreak Denver
(Castle Rock, CO) District Court Judge Jeffrey K. Holmes ruled today that the Douglas County records custodian must allow Kyle Clark to inspect the withdrawn CORA request for the names of teachers who requested sick leave on Feb.3rd.
The custodian must also disclose the name of the requester.
The court's ruling is based on two arguments. First, the court found Kyle Clark asked for the document before the person decided to withdraw his or her request and when it was clearly still a matter of public record.
Second, the ruling states that DCSD had already released everything from the request, but the name of the requestor before the request had been withdrawn. In fact, the district sent an email to all teachers absent on February 3rd informing them of the request and letting them know the district did not plan to respond.
The district’s website says in bold red letters, “Please be advised that as of January 1, 2022, we will no longer redact names of the persons that submit CORA requests, we will redact only personal information, such as phone numbers, addresses or email address.”
The ruling states, “There is no authority of which this court is aware that permits a requester to remove a CORA request from its status as a public record by simply asking that it be withdrawn.”