Woodland Park School District drops gag order that violated teachers’ First Amendment rights, union says

The Woodland Park School District has removed and replaced a school board policy that the local teachers union called unconstitutional because it prohibited educators from speaking to the press or posting on social media about district decisions without consent, the Woodland Park Education Association announced this week.

The teachers union sued the district and its Board of Education in federal court over the summer, alleging employees’ First Amendment rights were violated by the policy. The decision to replace the policy with a new one, which the union says “protects the First Amendment rights of educators,” was made during federal court mediation, according to a news release.

“This is a huge win for Woodland Park educators following the outcome of our lawsuit,” said Nate Owen, president of the Woodland Park Education Association, in a statement. “We’re overjoyed that teachers and other employees can finally speak on matters of public concern without fear of retaliation for simply exercising their right to free speech.”

The new policy, dated Wednesday and posted to the district’s website, states teachers are free to express themselves “in their private capacity,” but can’t speak on behalf of their school or district without approval or divulge “deliberative and confidential information” that hasn’t already been shared publicly by the district.

“(W)e are happy that the… policy language changes preserve our ability to hold staff accountable for professional communications conduct while overcoming the union pretense that it infringes on free speech,” Woodland Park Superintendent Ken Witt said in a statement.

The district, located in Teller County northwest of Colorado Springs, has about 1,800 students, 130 classroom teachers and roughly 166 other staff, according to the lawsuit filed by the teachers union.

Despite being small, Woodland Park has drawn national scrutiny after a conservative majority joined the school board, hired a new superintendent and adopted a social studies standard that was created by a right-wing advocacy group.

The union’s lawsuit said the school board had changed a district policy about how employees were to communicate with news media to say they weren’t allowed to be interviewed by journalists about school or student matters without written consent from the superintendent.