(January 23, 2025 – St. Louis, Missouri) Under legal pressure following a public records lawsuit against Kirkwood School District (KSD) and its leadership, filed by Thomas More Society attorneys on behalf of two parents, the school district has begun enforcing federal student privacy laws, according to reporting this week by the student journalists of Kirkwood High School.

The Kirkwood Call, a student-led publication dated January 18, 2025, reports that “the KSD Board of Education (BOE) has imposed new restrictions on the use of surveys in both The Kirkwood Call (TKC) and Pioneer Yearbook, via advice from BOE district lawyers.” In the article, which openly laments KSD’s recent decision to enforce federal law and district policy to prohibit them from sending illegal surveys, the student journalists publish a timeline of KSD’s past lack of compliance with federal law and district policy and fault the school district for being influenced to begin complying with the law by the parents’ lawsuit.

In May 2024, Thomas More Society attorneys filed a 10-count lawsuit on behalf of two parents against KSD and its leadership, alleging that the school had violated Missouri’s Sunshine Law, which requires public entities to disclose public records upon request in a timely manner. The May 2024 petition filed by Thomas More Society attorneys charged the school district and KSD Superintendent David Ulrich with intentionally withholding public records related to a variety of curriculum and policy concerns at least 10 times in the past year.

Over 18 months ago, the district’s student-led Pioneer Yearbook sparked national controversy after school district employees sent a questionnaire to thousands of students seeking information about their sexual relationships, behaviors, and birth control. Survey answers were subsequently published by the yearbook, but parents were never consulted or given prior notice in order to have the opportunity to opt their child out of the survey—as the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment requires.

When parents sought information about this breach of federal law through public records requests, KSD withheld public records, claiming that the district was unable to locate even the very survey an employee sent to thousands of students. That failure to comply with the Sunshine Law became only the first of ten counts of illegal withholding of public records that form the basis for the parents’ lawsuit.

Courtney Rawlins, parent and Thomas More Society plaintiff, reacted: “It’s really unfortunate that KSD failed to teach its students that responsible reporting includes following applicable laws. And instead of having productive discussions about adherence to policies and laws, KSD continued its illegal practices and then tried to cover it up. The students are unfortunately experiencing the consequences of KSD’s ongoing poor leadership.”

Mary Catherine Martin, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel, added: “Thomas More Society is happy to accept credit for inspiring Kirkwood School District to start following federal law and its own policy in the areas of student privacy and parents’ rights. However, it should not require an open records lawsuit for Kirkwood School District to comply with the law. KSD was publicly exposed in the national media for illegally violating students’ privacy more than 18 months ago. The fact that, according to their students, they still were not following the law more than a year later demonstrates our Defendants’ scorn for parents and the law.”

Read the Petition in Rawlins, et al. v. Ulrich, et al., filed by Thomas More Society attorneys in the Circuit Court of the County of St. Louis – 21st Judicial Circuit, here.