Mother Sued by Teachers Union for Questions about School Curriculum

A mother of a Rhode Island Kindergartner is being sued for asking her daughter’s school what they would be teaching regarding gender and other social hot topics. Nicole Solas shared her written request that she sent to Wakefield Elementary School Principal Coleen Smith.

Among the thirteen points of inquiry, Mrs. Solas said she wanted “all curriculum for all grades at Wakefield Elementary School.” With more stories popping up in the news about the devastating effects of CRT and its infiltration into our classrooms, Solas wanted to make sure the school her child went to was free of the social justice curriculum.

Solas asked the principal for a list of all books offered in the classrooms and the library that deal with “antiracism, race relations, any political topics relating to Black Lives Matters and President Trump, gender theory, transgenderism, and all topics of sexuality, sexual education, and any political topic.”

Nicole Solas also asked Westlake Elementary to disclose “all past and present lesson plans that incorporate or promote the ideologies of antiracism, gender theory, transgenderism, and critical race theory.”

If it had to do with topics on sexuality or race, Nicole Solas asked for it. She finished her initial request asking Principal Smith to “feel free to respond as you acquire information instead of waiting to respond comprehensively.”

It only took two days before Principal Smith responded, directing Solas to submit an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request to get the information she wanted. Smith wrote, “With the scope of your request for information on our district, I recommend that you use the link below to submit our request for this information.”

On August 4, Nicole Solas announced that she was being sued by the National Education Association of Rhode Island and the National Education Association – South Kingstown because she dared to ask what her daughter’s teachers felt was appropriate to teach her daughter.

The complaint stated that the nation’s largest teachers union is suing Solas to “prohibit the disclosure of non-public records” if “those requests that call for personally identifiable and other personnel-related information about public school teachers.”

But that wasn’t enough. On August 5, the same teachers union filed a restraining order against Nicole Solas. She tweeted the restraining order saying, “Today the teacher union NEA filed another lawsuit against me – this time a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction.” She asked, “Will teacher unions bullying moms be an everyday thing now?”

In an issue of In Defense of Liberty, the Director of National Litigation at the Goldwater Institute, Jon Riches, spoke about his client’s case call the lawsuit a “brazen and unprecedented act of intimidation by the NEA” and promised that it “will not stand.”

Riches said, “Nicole Solas is entitled to know what her daughter’s school is teaching in the classroom. She’s entitled to ask questions. And she does not deserve to face legal action just for asking questions any concerned parent would ask.”

 

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