Sarasota school board member called report leak a crime. Experts disagree

When Sarasota County School Board member Tom Edwards called for a criminal investigation last month into the leak of an explosive district report, he said the person who released it violated state law. 

But two leading Florida government transparency experts told Suncoast Searchlight the report was a public record — and questioned whether its disclosure violated any law.

They also warned that threatening criminal consequences for the release of information about alleged government wrongdoing can discourage whistleblowers from coming forward in the future and leave the public knowing less about the institutions meant to serve them.

“Set the law aside and just think — is this right, for the government to attack and try to throw someone in jail for trying to educate the public on an issue of public importance?” said David Cuillier, director of the University of Florida’s Joseph L. Brechner Freedom Center of Information Project. 

The 43-page report at the center of the dispute was commissioned by Sarasota County Schools and completed in April by the law firm Hultman + Joshi. It concluded the district failed to properly handle three separate complaints of teacher misconduct at Riverview High School. 

After the report was handed off to the district and school board, a local social media page obtained an unredacted copy and circulated it. Suncoast Searchlight verified its authenticity and obtained, through a public records request, documents related to the HR investigations under review.

Edwards said at the August meeting he would file a report with the Sarasota Police Department — which has no jurisdiction over the high school or school district headquarters. As of Wednesday, he had yet to do so.

On Wednesday, a school official acknowledged the Hultman + Joshi report and confirmed there was an active investigation of an employee stemming from the review. 

“The district’s position is that the Hultman + Joshi report generated additional concerns that required further review and follow-up,” said Gabriella Clark, a records specialist with Sarasota County Schools, in an email, pointing to a Florida statute that exempts complaints and investigations into complaints about public school personnel. “As a result, the report became part of, and informed, a subsequent internal personnel investigation that is currently ongoing.”

Barbara Petersen, founder of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, rejected the district’s position — pointing to the fact that the Hultman + Joshi document is not itself a complaint. 

“This is not a complaint,” Petersen said. “Exemptions to public records law are narrowly construed and strictly applied. This exemption does not apply.” 

Even if the report was exempt, Florida’s law has narrow criminal liability for disclosing exempt documents, with punishments often reserved for disclosing sensitive information about victims of sexual abuse or confidential information relating to a whistleblower.

In an interview with Suncoast Searchlight, Edwards defended his position and reaffirmed that he will involve law enforcement to investigate the leak. He said all of his public statements about the leak have been vetted by the school board’s legal counsel.

“The leak of that report was breaking the law,” Edwards said. “It’s unfair to the employees to have their privacy violated, especially if it turns out the complaints were unwarranted.”

District kept report under wraps

The oldest complaint reviewed by the consultants was first filed in 2020. The state’s public records laws require employee discipline investigations to remain exempt from disclosure until they are either no longer active or closed.

The school district tightly controlled access to the Hultman + Joshi report, creating fewer than 10 hard copies, Edwards said. 

Five of the copies were supplied to the school board members, and Edwards has indicated publicly he believes one of his peers could have leaked the document.

Edwards’ plea for police involvement, which was first reported by WUSF, comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis also threatened consequences this week over the leaking of a grand jury report that found state officials funneled $10 million of Medicaid settlement money through his wife’s charity to fund political advertisements.

Experts say that by attacking the leaker instead of addressing the core allegations, government officials can control the message, limiting the public’s ability to scrutinize those in power.

The report was first made public by local news aggregator Francesco Abbruzzino, who posted the entire document to social media on June 4 — just two days after Superintendent Terry Connor announced he was moving misconduct investigations out of human resources and into a separate office.

The report did not mince words about what it concluded were severe shortcomings of previous Riverview and district investigations into the allegations of teacher and staff misconduct, including that investigators allegedly fostered an environment of retaliation that led to the weaponization of such investigations.

“The common theme was failure in culture and leadership,” wrote Nikhil Joshi, who authored the report. “The targets of concerns included three primary individuals at RHS, but also pointed to an alleged lack of presence and leadership from RHS administration, allowing tumult and inconsistency to foment at the floor level of the school.”

Just days after Suncoast Searchlight detailed the document’s findings on June 18, the district made more changes, this time at Riverview High School, where it shuffled then-principal Erin Haughey into a district role and named Michelle Anderson principal of Riverview High School. 

Once again, the district did not address the report or directly answer questions about whether the move was in response to its findings.

“These leadership transitions reflect Sarasota County Schools’ commitment to strengthening student outcomes across the district and aligning leaders with roles that will have the greatest potential for impact,” School District spokesperson Kelsey Whealy wrote in an email to Suncoast Searchlight on June 24.

The district further declined to say whether there had been any salary adjustments with the moves, instead directing a reporter to file a public records request. Reporters also asked for comment on the Hultman + Joshi report, but were again directed to file more public records requests.

One expert told Suncoast Searchlight that secrecy fosters an environment that could ultimately lead to more leaks. 

“When governments clamp down on information — try to control the message and break public records law — often what happens is the records get out in their entirety,” Cuillier said.

Derek Gilliam and Alice Herman are investigative/watchdog reporters for Suncoast Searchlight. Email Derek at derek@suncoastsearchlight.org and Alice at alice@suncoastsearchlight.org.