As detailed
in a prior post, my Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) regarding Bassem Tamimi’s appearance before third graders at the Beverly J. Martin School (BJM) encountered a completely unexpected problem:
In brief, and incredibly, the teachers union in the Ithaca school district appears to have instructed its members not to produce records responsive to my FOIL Request contained on personal electronic devices and email accounts....
So I went to court and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order preserving records pending a court determination on the merits.
After responsive motion papers from ICSD and the Ithaca Teachers Association [ITA], in which ITA disputed some of ICSD's allegations, and my reply, the case was argued on January 25, 2016, before the N.Y. State Supreme Court (the trial level court in NY) in Ithaca.
I was
pro se in the case. ICSD was represented by a large Syracuse law firm, and ITA by the legal department of New York State United Teachers, the statewide teachers union.
In a
decision issued today, the Court granted most of the relief I requested, including injunctive relief requiring ICSD to make specified efforts to obtain records contained on the personal electronic devices of ICSD employees. (Full embed at bottom of post.)
But first, some background for those of you not familiar with the third grade incident.