Rhode Island school district charges mother $117K for teacher’s records

A college district in Rhode Island mentioned it can cost a mom $117,132 to overview the curriculum and emails of a trainer who known as Charlie Kirk “a bit of trash” shortly after the conservative activist was killed on September 10.

In a September letter to Nicole Solas, a regulation agency representing Barrington Public Colleges mentioned its public information request for social research trainer Benjamin Fillo’s educating supplies and emails would whole $117,132.

In her public records requestrequested Solas for all emails Fillo despatched from his faculty e-mail tackle to the current from September 1, 2024, containing the phrase “Trump,” which turned out to be 789 emails, in addition to e-mail correspondence from Fillo since January 1, 2016, containing the phrase “Trump.”

Solas is a mom who lives in one other faculty district and whose kids are in personal faculty as a result of the Nationwide Training Affiliation Rhode Island (NEARI) sued her 4 years in the past for sending public information requests about political indoctrination. She additionally requested Fillo’s educating supplies, together with handouts, assignments, movies, hyperlinks, sources, guides, worksheets, workbooks and prompts.

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A college district in Rhode Island says it can cost a mom $117,132 to overview the curriculum and emails of a trainer who known as Charlie Kirk “a bit of trash” shortly after the conservative activist was killed on September 10. (Reuters/Andrew Kelly)

Shortly after Kirk’s public killing on September 10, whereas talking at Utah Valley College throughout his American Comeback Tour, Fillo posted a video on-line saying that Kirk “hated the LGBTQ neighborhood” and “hated ladies’s rights.”

Fillo, who was positioned on administrative go away after his video publish, additionally mentioned within the video that Kirk “thought he was proving how robust he was together with his phrases. … What a multitude. Look what occurs. … Bye, Charlie!”

In its letter, the regulation agency, Henneous Carroll Lombardo LLC, instructed Solas that gathering the emails containing the phrase “Trump” would value $380, the curriculum value could be $116,033 and that the request for Fillo’s e-mail correspondence since January 1, 2016, containing the phrase “Trump” would value $719, for a complete of $117,132.

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Charlie Kirk speaks earlier than he was killed throughout Turning Level’s go to to Utah Valley College in Orem, Utah, September 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret Information by way of AP)

“This estimate that we acquired is exorbitant and fully unreasonable simply to acquire the curriculum supplies,” Solas instructed Fox Information Digital in an interview Thursday.

“And the Goldwater Institute and my lawyer, James McGlone, have despatched a letter to the varsity district demanding they decrease the speed. Frankly, it ought to be zero as a result of these are curriculum supplies that taxpayers have already paid for.”

Solas mentioned revising Fillo’s curriculum supplies is critical as a result of it’s “the one method you possibly can see what public faculty children are like, and if you cannot get them since you’re being intentionally held again with an unreasonable charge, then we do not have open authorities.”

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Benjamin Fillo, who was positioned on administrative go away after his video publish, additionally mentioned within the video that Kirk “thought he was proving how robust he was together with his phrases. … What a multitude. Look what occurs. … Bye, Charlie!” (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)

“I simply do not see how this could stand if we file a lawsuit over it,” Solas added. “So I hope the varsity district makes the proper determination and releases the supplies without cost.”

In a press release to Fox Information Digital, Morgan Hollenbrook, a mom whose kids previously attended Barrington Public Colleges, instructed Fox Information Digital: “Mr. Fillo’s tirade on social media was stunning to look at, and it’s regarding that BPS has positioned such an exorbitant price ticket on a public information request. Taxpayers have a proper to this data that ought to be available, and BPS’ actions result in the assumption that there’s something to cover.”

Heather Ryan, a ninth-grader at Barrington Excessive Faculty, instructed Fox Information Digital in a press release: “As a member of Mum or dad and Turning Level USA Motion RI, my household and I discover it disturbing {that a} man is allowed to politically indoctrinate kids and have fun political assassinations of individuals he disagrees with. No Christian household with any partisan ideology ought to really feel comfy with Ben Fillo educating their little one behind closed doorways.”

Kiela Daley, a mom of 5 with three kids in Barrington faculties, instructed Fox Information Digital: “Transparency within the classroom is crucial to sustaining belief between lecturers and households. Our district’s curriculum is broadly on-line. It doesn’t reveal the particular supplies used, e.g. lectures, movies, slides, and so forth., that form our youngsters’s minds. Mother and father have the proper to see what’s being taught with out having to pay an astronomical charge to make that data public.”

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Daley added: “Lecturers have a robust affect on college students, and it’s their accountability to advertise unbiased pondering, not a specific ideology. Ought to we ask for coaching and supervision to make sure point-of-view impartial training in order that college students aren’t belittled due to their beliefs? No pupil ought to really feel emotionally threatened due to their sincerely held beliefs in the event that they battle with the trainer’s place and narrative.”

Fox Information Digital reached out to Fillo and Christopher Ashley, performing superintendent at Barrington Public Colleges, for remark.