Wednesday, November 8, 2000
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Wednesday, November 8, 2000 |
| Employees sue school
board to quash release of numbers, addresses
By JOHN
MUNFORD
Several local public school employees are going to court in an attempt to prevent the Fayette County Board of Education from releasing their phone numbers and addresses to the Georgia Association of Educators. GAE has filed an open records request for that information with the Board of Education. But the employees' suit claims that information is considered private under Georgia's open records law. The matter will be taken up at a special hearing before Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 9:30 a.m. Monday morning, Caldwell met with several lawyers involved in the case and asked that the information not be released for the time being, essentially concurring with a request from the employees for a temporary restraining order to that effect. The open records request was filed by GAE's member services representative, Mark Perez, asking for certain information on all new hires and employees of the school board. Georgia's open records law states that records should not be released if they contain the home addresses or telephone numbers of "... law enforcement officers, judges, scientists employed by the Division of Forensic Sciences of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, correctional employees, and prosecutors ... or immediate family members or dependents thereof." The suit, however, claims that some school board employees are married to law enforcement officers from various state and local agencies. The suit was brought forth by Michael Eugene Smith, Kathryn E. Corley, Carol Ann Smith, Charlene Phanco and Nancy Sheets. Tim Callahan, a spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, said its attorney became involved when PAGE members notified the organization about GAE's request. The two organizations are not related.
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