According to the opinion, Boddy sought the list in December 2024 anonymously through her attorney. The Xenia School Board argued the list was not a public record, and they could deny publishing the list because it contained identifiable student information, according to the slip opinion.
This is not Boddy’s first legal action against Xenia schools. Boddy sued the Xenia school board and then-board president Mary Grech in 2024 over interactions during a tumultuous public comment session during the board’s Oct. 14, 2024 meeting.
Boddy previously served on the Lakota school board for a tumultuous two years that included numerous fights over political, gender and leadership issues. She made frequent claims that Lakota Schools were improperly handling race, gender and political issues before being voted off that board, and made similar claims against the Xenia board during the Oct. 2024 meeting, saying the board was promoting “racist and divisive ideology.”
In that lawsuit, Judge Michael Newman ruled against Boddy, denying her a restraining order against Grech and the board, and ordering her lawsuit to go to mediation. Boddy has since appealed this ruling.
Boddy is the founder and executive of Access Ohio, an organization focused on “educating our communities on initiatives that empower parents, strengthen families, and preserve traditional American values to ensure a brighter future for our children.” She does not live in Xenia nor has children in Xenia schools, according to the first suit.
In the Thursday slip opinion in the public records case, the Ohio Supreme Court said the burden of proof that a document is subject to public record exemptions falls upon the “records custodian,” in this case, the school district. Over the course of the suit, justices had ordered the district to submit the distribution list, as well as any other confidential student information, under seal for evidence. According to court documents, this never happened.
“Despite this court’s order, the school district did not submit the email distribution list under seal for camera inspection,” justices wrote. “To carry this burden, a records custodian must prove that the requested records ‘fall squarely within’ the exemption...because we cannot determine whether the list contains protected student information...the school district has failed to satisfy its burden to prove the list falls squarely within the ‘state or federal law’ exemption.”
Additionally over the course of the lawsuit, Xenia also attempted to claw back “attorney-client privileged materials” that had been entered into evidence, a motion the court denied.
The opinion was joined by nearly all the Ohio Supreme Court justices. Justice Patrick Fischer concurred with the opinion, but said he would not award damages to Boddy.
Since the district did not provide the list to Boddy within 10 days, she is entitled to the law’s maximum $1,000 in damages, in addition to attorney’s fees, per the opinion.
“First and foremost, the district’s priority throughout this process has been to protect student privacy,” Xenia Community Schools Superintendent Gabe Lofton said in a statement to this newspaper. “While we recognized that the Ohio Supreme Court had previously determined that email distribution lists are public records, we sought to ensure that any personally identifiable student information could be properly redacted before responding to the original records request.”
“This ruling allows us to meet the legal requirements while also abiding by our ethical and legal obligations to protect our students and families,” Lofton said.
In 2023, a civil protection order issued by a Butler County court ordered Boddy to have no contact with then-fellow Lakota board member Isaac Adi, which eventually led to her being voted off the board, as she could not attend meetings with Adi present.
About the Author
