Ohio Supreme Court is to make a decision about a Cincinnati school’s potential ICE-related response

The Ohio Supreme Court will decide whether Forest Hills school officials would be forced to reveal their potential response to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showing up at one of their schools.

A lawsuit filed with the Ohio Supreme Court by Cincinnati attorney Curt Hartman last month seeks the immediate release of unredacted copies of the school board members’ plan, which has been released to the public in heavily redacted form. School officials have until March 21 to respond to the lawsuit, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Hartman said the district doesn’t have the right to hide that information because, in its defense, it cited only a state law that applies to information related to protecting schools from “attack, interference or sabotage,” or potential “acts of terrorism.” According to Hartman, ICE agents are not terrorists and will not threaten schools, teachers, or students.

“It does seem to be a hostility toward law enforcement doing their job,” he said, according to The Enquirer.

District spokesman Josh Bazan defended the Forest Hills board’s position in a statement.

“The district is confident the redactions made to the ICE Response Plan document for purposes of safety and security of students and staff are legitimate,” he said, according to the news source.

In February, Forest Hills board member Jeremy Ward said the district decided not to release the entire, unredacted plan after learning that the Department of Homeland Security was allegedly requesting data from anti-ICE social media accounts, The Enquirer reported.

“We know they’re looking online. They’re searching,” he said. “Our whole point was if we can do this as part of a safety meeting and keep it out of public record, that seems like a better choice.”

Hartman, however, said that the decision was motivated not by the pursuit of safety but rather by left-wing political activism, comparing the school board members to anti-ICE protesters.

“A narrow and extreme element of society and anarchists have sought to disrupt and interfere with such law enforcement efforts,” he said in the lawsuit, adding that ICE doesn’t intend to take enforcement actions on school property. “It’s a non-issue. Where is the threat of ICE? It doesn’t exist.”