Woodland Park’s teachers union is suing the local school district and Board of Education, alleging employees’ First Amendment rights were violated by a policy adopted earlier this year that prohibits educators from speaking to the press or posting on social media about district decisions without consent.
“If it seems that Woodland Park has been in the press an inordinate amount of times for such a small town, you can place the blame squarely on the and ,” said Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, in a statement. “They are intent on politicizing all aspects of Woodland Park’s public education system, and will stop at nothing to demoralize their public school educators and negatively impact their students’ learning environments.
A representative for the Woodland Park School District could not immediately be reached for comment Friday morning.after a conservative majority gained control of the school board, hired a new superintendent and adopted a social studies standard — called American Birthright — that was created by a right-wing advocacy group.
In February, the school board changed a district policy on how employees communicate with news media to say that no staff members are allowed to be interviewed by journalists about school or student matters unless they have written consent from the superintendent, according to the lawsuit.