Colorado’s growing anti-doxxing law could soon include teachers

Teachers could gain exemptions from the Colorado Open Records Act if a bill under consideration by the state senate becomes law.

Senate Bill 22-171 would add educators and support staff to the growing list of professions who could request their personal information be kept private out of fear of doxxing, or the publishing of personal information with the intent of intimidating or harassing the person. It would also prohibit the release of specific days an educator called out sick.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village, and Sen. Kevin Priola, R-Henderson, cleared its first committee Thursday by a bipartisan vote. Priola said public discourse has been getting more confrontational and away from normal deliberations and the one person, one vote structure. He noted that he’s also running a bill to increase the physical security for elected officials.

“The technology of organization and public dialogue are changing,” Priola said ahead of the committee. “…. When you have a group of people who are upset and they’re doing certain things to threaten people, I think we as elected representatives need to do our part to ensure the peace is kept.”

The bill was in response to concerns by Douglas County School District educators that they were being targeted for protesting actions by the county’s school board earlier this year.

He and Priola each noted that it is relatively recently that a person’s personal information can be widely circulated on the internet.

Kevin DiPasquale, the teachers’ union president, said a call to release the names of educators who called out sick to protest the board had a “chilling effect” on their speech.

“This threat was akin to doxxing people on the internet,” DiPasquale said. “… It’s aim is to intimidate teachers into silence.”

Several teachers had fliers tucked under their windshield wipers stating “most teachers are good” but “you are bad! Get out and leave!”

Former District Attorney George Brauchler, who encouraged the release of the names on a radio show, said in a Denver Post column that it was not about threatening any teachers or putting them in harm’s way. Instead, it was so parents could “ask them why they chose to take another in-class day from our kids.”

The senators on the committee all empathized with teachers feeling threatened, and several recounted threats they had received over their public roles.

“Teachers are having their personal safety threatened,” state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat and educator on the committee, said. “It’s a fact. I think we owe it to our educators to protect their information so their personal safety is secure, and also the personal safety of their family members.”

State Sen. Paul Lundeen was the only no vote on the legislation. He emphasized that he’s in favor of protecting workers’ personal information — and noted he co-sponsored a law with Bridges in 2021 to offer such protections to public health workers — but was concerned protecting the dates people called in sick ends up giving specific carve out for political speech by government workers.