(The Center Square) – Georgia’s largest school district has quoted a community activist nearly $40,000 to fulfill a public records request – an estimate a First Amendment attorney calls “crazy high” and potentially out of scope.
The price quote came from Gwinnett County Public Schools after Tori Branum, of Dublin, Ga., filed a formal request for personnel records and internal communications concerning the hiring of teacher Nishat Kayum. School district staff wrote that the request would require 856 hours of labor, at $46.22 per hour, to review and redact more than 51,000 records. That amounts to roughly five months of full-time work.
Branum is a self-described “anti-Sharia” community activist who often rails on social media against the spread of Islam. She told The Center Square she wanted to know why a suburban high school hired an English language arts teacher who wears a niqab – a Muslim veil covering most of her face…