JCCC Responds to Student Lawsuit

Posted today on the Johnson County Community College email server, Infolist:

SPLC brings lawsuit against JCCC

Johnson County Community College has been notified of a lawsuit brought the Student Press Law Center and a former student regarding open records requests. The SPLC says the fees the college is asking to comply with the requests are excessive.

JCCC periodically receives and responds to Kansas Open Records Act requests. The SPLC and a former member of the Campus Ledger, the college’s student newspaper, have asked the college to produce these records:

• Emails to and from a former college employee and the former executive director of the college’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, for Jan. 16-17, 2011, days admittedly chosen at random
• All emails in December 2010 between the former employee and a professor
• A list of all Kansas Open Records Act requests to the college and its responses for 2010-2011.

The college is working with counsel to reach a satisfactory outcome to the matter.

Student Journalist Takes JCCC to Court

You knew it was gonna happen sooner or later …

Posted on the Student Press Law Center website:

KANSAS — The Student Press Law Center and a college journalist filed alawsuit Tuesday against Johnson County Community College in Kansas for excessive fees to release open records, including nearly $10,000 to produce one day’s worth of emails.

The college estimated a total of $24,130.72 to fulfill requests by the SPLC and former copy editor Marcus Clem for staff emails and documents related to other open records requests.

Attorney Christopher Grenz, of the Kansas City law firm Bryan Cave, who is handling the case pro bono as part of the SPLC’s attorney referral network, said the fees are “facially excessive.”

“They’re basically hanging a price tag on what should be public documents in order to keep those documents from being public,” Grenz said.

The current requests in the lawsuit have evolved from an original request by Rachel Kimbrough, current editor in chief at The Campus Ledger student newspaper at JCCC. Clem said Kimbrough was working on a story about the closing of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and departure of program director Jason Rozelle.