A former employee of a Colorado school district was banned from school board meetings because of his criticism of the conservative administration, a lawsuit filed Thursday by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union alleges.
Logan Ruths was fired from his informational technology specialist role at Woodland Park School District in March after he raised concerns that the administration had improperly withheld files and redacted information in response to open records requests, which Ruths processed as part of his job.
Ruths alleges in his lawsuit against the district and Ken Witt, its superintendent, that the district used a small remark Ruths made during a recent school board meeting as pretext to retaliate against him for speaking out against school board members and administrators, including in an NBC News article. He also testified in the Colorado Legislature about his experience in support of a bill to submit school boards to an ethics oversight commission.
