Pa Supreme Court to hear PENNCREST Right to Know case

Dec. 6—Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear whether the state's Right-to-Know law requires the disclosure of PENNCREST School Board members' social media posts on their private Facebook accounts.

However, no date has been set as yet as to when the case will be heard.

The crux of the matter is whether two PENNCREST School Board members were acting in their official capacity when they made posts to their individual Facebook accounts regarding a Pride Month display at Maplewood Junior-Senior High in May 2021.

The matter has wound its way through the legal system for about two years.

In June 2021 Thomas Cagle, a PENNCREST School District resident, made a Right-to-Know request to PENNCREST seeking, among other items, all "Facebook posts and comments" by PENNCREST School Board members David Valesky and Luigi DeFrancesco regarding "homosexuality and PENNCREST School District," as well as all comments relating to those posts.

In July 2021, PENNCREST School District's open records officer denied the requests, stating that no posts or comments by the two school board members were made on any district-owned Facebook accounts. Cagle then appealed the request to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, which sided with him in an Aug. 24, 2021, decision.

The matter then moved to Crawford County Court of Common Pleas in September 2021 after PENNCREST filed a petition for judicial review of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records decision.

In December 2021, Senior Judge William Cunningham, who heard the matter in county court, ruled in favor of Cagle. In his decision, Cunningham wrote that although board members were using their private accounts to make the posts, that did not mean they did not constitute a record under the Right-to-Know Law.

Cunningham cited the case Barkeyville Borough v. Stearns in which a Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania judge ruled emails made by members of the Barkeyville Borough Council discussing borough business on their personal computers constituted records and had to be turned over following a Right-to-Know request.

PENNCREST appealed the Crawford County Court decision to Commonwealth Court, which made a 4-3 ruling in April of this year to overturn the county court decision.

"We respectfully disagree with the trial court's holding that it 'does not matter' if the social media post was on a public or private account," the Commonwealth Court decision said. "We also disagree with the court to the extent it suggested that merely because a board member expressed his views about board business in a social media post, he created a public record. We hold the court must address, among other factors, whether that board member acted in an 'official capacity'."

Cagle then appealed the Commonwealth Court ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which issued a notice Monday it would hear the case.

"We're happy the (Pennsylvania) Supreme Court will hear the case," Brian Cagle, Thomas Cagle's attorney, said Tuesday. "And, we're glad the Supreme Court believes it's an important issue.

Thomas King III, the PENNCREST School District's attorney, did not respond to the Tribune's request for comment.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.