When Sarasota County School Board member Tom Edwards called for a criminal investigation last month into the leak of an explosive district report, he said the person who released it violated state law.
But two leading Florida government transparency experts told Suncoast Searchlight the report was a public record — and questioned whether its disclosure violated any law.
They also warned that threatening criminal consequences for the release of information about alleged government wrongdoing can discourage whistleblowers from coming forward in the future and leave the public knowing less about the institutions meant to serve them…