ANDERSON TWP., Ohio — A lawsuit filed against the Forest Hills School District Board of Education has been settled, according to a report from WXVU.
The lawsuit was filed by several FHSD parents in June 2022 against the district, board of education members and then newly-hired superintendent just days after the school board passed its Resolution to Create a Culture of Kindness and Equal Opportunity for all students and staff.
On Thursday, both parties met and informed the court they reached a settlement, expecting the case to be dismissed by the end of the year. WXVU said neither of the attorneys have commented on the settlement.
The resolution banned assignments where students would have to consider their race, socioeconomic class, religion, gender identity or sexuality. It also states schools cannot force individuals to admit privilege or oppression. Those that filed the lawsuit said the resolution violated their First and Fourteenth amendment rights.
The resolution sparked protests from both parents and students, led one superintendent candidate to withdraw his application and fueled heated debate and arguments in several school board meetings last year.
"The resolution is a content-based restriction which prohibits curriculum, education and training on, among other things, 'anti-racism,' 'identity,' 'Critical Race Theory,' and 'intersectionality,' not only severely restricting but outright prohibiting discussion on such subjects in the school district's schools without any legitimate pedagogical purpose, but instead to further certain board members' partisan political agendas, using language that is simultaneously extraordinarily broad and vague," the suit read.
In late October, the board filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit saying the resolution was a "vision statement" or "statement of belief." Judge Michael Barrett denied the motion saying the district couldn't claim it wasn't intended to be enforced based on the writing of the resolution.
"It defies logic and the basic conventions of the English language to argue that the Resolution was "only a statement of belief and not a change to existing school policies, when the Resolution itself uses mandatory language to declare what FHSD 'will not utilize,' and lists a number of actions that schools and teachers 'may not' or 'shall not' take,"" Barrett wrote.
No members of the school district spoke directly with WCPO 9 after the judge's ruling, but the district did share a statement from the board saying they were "disappointed" in the decision.
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