Copyright 2005, Record Searchlight

Judge orders unsealing of school district's sex harassment investigation of former superintendent

(Record Searchlight 2/17/05) -- A Siskiyou County judge has dismissed the arguments of the high school district board here to keep sealed an investigative report into sexual harassment allegations against former Superintendent/Principal Bob Morris.

Judge John Letton ruled Wednesday that he would review the report to decide how much to make public.

The Record Searchlight sued the Dunsmuir Joint Union High School District and its board in August for access to a report on Morris by private investigator Diane Davis of Redding. The board has refused to release the report.

Morris resigned in July amid allegations of bullying and sexual harassment from parents, graduates and students. An investigation ordered by the district into the complaints was in its final stages when Morris resigned.

Attorneys for the school board and Morris argued that the document should remain sealed because it dealt with private personnel issues, making it exempt from the California Public Records Act. The board's attorneys also argued that the report was private because it had been ordered in anticipation of a possible lawsuit against the school district and that it was protected by attorney-client privilege.

Judge Letton ruled the attorneys for the district and for Morris failed to prove their case.

Rather than immediately release the document to the Record Searchlight, however, Letton will review the report and decide how much of it should be released. In his ruling, Letton said that with Morris no longer a district employee, there was a diminished public interest in the report.

"The ruling is essentially in favor of the newspaper," said the Record Searchlight's attorney, Walter McNeill. "If the judge had ruled in their (the district's) favor this would be over."

McNeill disagreed with Judge Letton's argument that Morris resignation lowered the public interest in the investigative report.

"A request for public records is not an attack on Morris," he said. "It's an attempt to find out what's going on behind closed doors."

Board President Janice Garrigus could not be reached for comment.

Morris had served in the joint position at Dunsmuir High and the school district since 1989. Leonard Foreman, who was Anderson High School's assistant principal, became Dunsmuir High's new superintendent/principal in January.

By Rob Rogers