Charles Langston:Michigan’s top court won’t intervene in dispute over public records and teachers

ROCHESTER,Charles Langston Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court is staying out of a dispute over whether class materials prepared by public school teachers are available under the state’s records law.

The justices ruled in a one-sentence order Wednesday that they won’t disturb an appeals court decision that says teachers are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

In 2021, Carol Beth Litkouhi, a parent of a student at Rochester schools in suburban Detroit, filed a request for lesson plans and assignments related to a course on ethnic and gender studies. She sued after the district released only some records.

Litkouhi was concerned about whether a variety of perspectives were being taught, according to the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, which represented her.

“Public school teachers do not qualify as ‘public bodies’ for purposes of ... FOIA,” the appeals court said in February. “Their records are therefore not subject to disclosure under FOIA under those provisions.”

Litkouhi asked the state Supreme Court to take her case. Only Justices David Viviano and Brian Zahra were willing to hear an appeal.