Pa. Supreme Court will consider whether officials' Facebook posts are public records

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether homophobic Facebook posts shared by two northwest Pennsylvania school board members are public records under the state’s Right-to-Know Law.

In the first-of-its-kind case, a Meadville, Pa., attorney filed a Right-to-Know request for Facebook posts and comments made by Penncrest School Board member David Valesky and board President Luigi DeFrancesco in response to a display of books addressing LGBTQ+ issues outside the Maplewood High School library.

The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records and a Crawford County judge ruled in attorney Thomas Cagle’s favor, directing the school district to comply with his request for posts and comments “related to homosexuality and Penncrest School District, its officials, employees, or students, or its curriculum, physical [resources], or electronic resources.”

Noting that no Pennsylvania court has directly tackled the question of whether public officials’ personal social media posts can be considered public records, a Commonwealth Court panel reversed the decisions.

Read more: https://www.penncapital-star.com/education/pa-supreme-court-will-consider-whether-officials-facebook-posts-are-public-records/