Schools

School calendar suit near settlement

The case arose out of a district plan to discontinue religious holidays.

By LETITIA STEIN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 14, 2007

TAMPA - Hillsborough school officials appear ready to settle a 2-year-old lawsuit with conservative activist David Caton over charges the district violated the First Amendment by blocking his group's e-mails about religious holidays on the school calendar.

This summer, a judge ruled in favor of the school district. Caton and the Florida Family Association appealed.

The proposed settlement calls for Caton to drop the appeal. In exchange, the district would waive rights to an award of about $8,400 for court costs defending the suit.

School Board members are slated to vote on the deal Tuesday.

Under the judge's award, the district still would not recoup more than $40,000 in attorney fees spent on the case, board attorney Tom Gonzalez said. Defending the appeal could cost an additional $20,000 or more.

"We didn't do anything wrong, so there's no reason to litigate it further and spend money that we wouldn't get back," Gonzalez said.

The case arose out of the uproar in November 2005 when the board voted to stop coordinating religious holidays with days off school. Caton's supporters began sending e-mails asking elected officials to reconsider.

School officials noticed the e-mails arriving every 30 seconds from the same computer server. Fearing they would gum up the system, they okayed the block. Caton's group quickly sued.

Soon after, the board reversed its vote on the calendar at the recommendation of superintendent MaryEllen Elia. Last school year, it changed course again and approved the secular calendar now in place.

Caton said he was limited in what he could say before the board's vote on the settlement. He released the following statement from the Florida Family Association, which he leads:

"We believe that anyone who looks at the Magistrate Judge's report, which is the basis of the ruling that we appealed, would know that it does not accurately reflect the facts in the court record.

"However, we made the decision to settle our complaint based upon the increased cost of continued litigation and uncertainty of the outcome at the circuit court of appeals."

Letitia Stein can be reached at lstein@sptimes.com or 813 226-3400. For more education news, visit The Gradebook at blogs.tampabay.com/schools.

[Last modified September 14, 2007, 06:49:01]