News/Education
By George Miller, 2-9-24
Local civic activist and County Citizens Defending Freedom USA and its Nassau County Director Jack Knocke filed a lawsuit in 4th District/Nassau County Court against the Nassau County, FL School District (NCSD) and other defendants this week.
The 68 page complaint, including comprehensive supporting exhibits, takes NSCD to task for failing to: lawfully disclose information about the school curriculum, have legally compliant disclosure policies, follow such policies and flow down this requirement to contractors. Previous polite formal requests for information disclosure were mostly illegally deflected or denied, per the complaint. Plaintiff says that defendant was evasive and lying about what they have. Plaintiff believes that they are legally entitled to attorneys’ fees reimbursement by the Defendant.
Once they are legally in possession of items requested, they may evaluate whether, as a result of their investigation, the materials and services in question are appropriate and legal, then act accordingly. It is further hoped that this exercise will in the future make the District more likely to promptly and comprehensively comply with legally valid requests such as this one. This is CCDF’s first legal action against the district.
CCDF materials say that they use the biblical Book of Matthew approach when there is a disagreement- namely ask nicely first, explain the issue, request a meeting of the minds and only escalate if the conflict is not resolved. So legal action was pursued only when they repeatedly hit a dead end and ran out of options.
Read their Court Filing # 191446774 E-Filed 02/07/2024 12:07:11 PM
The defendants of record are: The School Board of Nassau County Florida, Nassau County School District and Nassau County Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, Inc. d/b/a Starting Point Behavioral Healthcare.
The complaint includes 3 counts:

Remedies
The remedies the Plaintiff is requesting include such things as: an immediate hearing on their complaint; show cause why it should not be complied with; find that the requested records are subject to disclosure; find that defendant acted in bad faith; provide immediate writ of mandamus to produce materials; award attorney fees; if ruled not disclosable, then make NCSD cease use of such materials; direct cessation of use of materials illegally acquired without legally required disclosure terms; review all agreements to bring them into compliance with state disclosure laws; bring District disclosure requirements into compliance with state laws; other relief deemed just and appropriate under Florida law and equity.
Some Curriculum Items
Some of the dog’s breakfast of curriculum items mentioned in the complaint may be of interest/concern to parents and taxpayers. It is unknown whether these would be applied to age-appropriate groups:



Background
Plaintiff Knocke first became aware of the situation indirectly, when he viewed a video taken at a PRIDE event, where a Starting Point behavioral counselor said that they would not share situations about children’s problems with “gender identity” with their parents. He learned that services were provided by Starting Point Behavioral Health (SPBH).
Then he learned that the Nassau School District had contracted with SPBH to use their so-called “Ripple Effect” materials and services in multiple areas. He connected the dots, but still didn’t know what the District had contracted for and what and how they would use it. So, back in August he initiated information requests to the District, directed to Asst. Superintendent Mark Durham, designated communications contact point.
Failing to achieve what he thought were his legally justified rights for full disclosure, he engaged attorney James Bruner Esq., Florida State Attorney for CCDF, to pursue his request. Bruner uncovered a number of problems, including alleged violation of multiple PRA (Public Records Act) provisions and more. We’ll let a copy of the attached complaint speak about it far more eloquently and in more detail than this reporter can muster.
When I asked Knocke how many of the 400 or so sections of the “Ripple Effect” that the District had contracted for, which ones would be used and whether they were edited or modified, he said he had no idea, because very little of it had been revealed to him, which is the whole point of the lawsuit.
Is the extent of school involvement in student mental health appropriate, especially given the orientation of the providers? He said he thought that the state school mental health budget has increased very dramatically in recent years. “Organizations are feasting on this bounty. Calling everything a mental health problem allows them to get into many different areas and impose their message.” It appears that Florida has placed some mental health mandates upon schools, via the FLDOE YMHFAT.
Conclusion
CCDF will pursue the litigation to conclusion and hopefully better establish the rights of the public for prompt and comprehensive information disclosure and more transparency in general, which seems to be severely lacking in the Nassau County School District. Why didn’t didn’t the district hold its own supplier responsible for disclosure requirements and why did it merely refer Jack Knocke to them to try to extract it on his own, with little leverage to do so?
It is likely that the District will not want to discuss the case and will do their response through legal channels, so we will await that.
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George Miller is Publisher and Co-Founder of Citizens Journal Florida, based in Fernandina Beach. He is a “retired” operations management consultant, software and publishing executive (10 years) and manufacturing management professional.