A Kentucky judge has ruled in favor of the University of Kentucky in an open-records case involving its campus newspaper's pursuit of documents regarding a sexual harassment investigation of a former professor.
Fayette Circuit Court Judge Thomas Clark reversed a state attorney general's opinion that said UK violated the state's open-records law by refusing to release documents on the professor's case to the student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel.
In his ruling made public Tuesday, Clark said the documents are "educational records" protected from disclosure by a federal student privacy law. He also said the records "cannot reasonably be redacted" to protect the privacy of students who made the allegations against the professor.
The professor later resigned but did not admit guilt.
Attorney General Andy Beshear's statement on the ruling:
“The court made today’s decision based on the same confidential review of documents that University of Kentucky officials denied the Attorney General’s office. The statutory power of the Attorney General to confidentially review such documents is necessary to avoid turning Kentucky’s Open Records Act into a ‘trust me’ law. Without the review, there can be no government transparency, as a bad actor can easily cheat the system. In the context of a university, it would allow an institution to hide serious issues related to sexual assault, to ignore victims, and to tell parents and families that a given campus may be safer than it is. The Attorney General’s office will continue its portion of the suit to ensure government transparency for all Kentucky families.”
