ACLU of Arizona, transgender advocate sue charter school group

PHOENIX — The ACLU of Arizona and a transgender youth advocate filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a charter school group they accused of failing to hold open meetings and release public records.

Robert Chevaleau and the ACLU of Arizona are suing Great Hearts due to the group’s refusal to be transparent with the public.

In a statement, a Great Hearts official denied the allegations.

“Great Hearts fully complies with the law,” the statement read.

“We have cooperated with public records requests from the ACLU and provided thousands of documents to them. They have chosen to waste more resources through this course of action and we are forced to respond in court.”

The plaintiffs want Great Hearts to comply with the Arizona Open Meeting Law, which states that public bodies must conduct meetings openly with agendas and notices explaining the matters discussed in said meetings.

Chevaleau, who had a child enrolled in one of the 22 Great Hearts schools in Arizona until June 2016, was denied the opportunity to voice his concerns at one of the group’s meetings after Great Hearts adopted a discriminatory policy targeting transgender students.

When Chevaleau asked if he could attend a meeting, he was told by Great Hearts Arizona president Erik Twist that they were closed to the public.

“Great Hearts’ anti-transgender policy allowed school staff to mistreat transgender students by classifying them in accordance with their sex assigned at birth, not their gender identity,” Chevaleau said in a press release. “How can Great Hearts claim that it is committed to public education when they refuse to protect the rights and dignity of all their students?

The group, which has two corporate entities, GreatHearts America and GreatHearts Arizona, claim they are not subject to providing the public with access to records or meetings.

“Great Hearts has taken virtually every step possible to insulate itself from public oversight and to avoid any public accountability for these public schools,” legal director for the ACLU of Arizona Kathy Brody said in a press release.

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