VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Debate over a Virginia Beach school board member’s proposed resolution aimed at protecting transgender children in schools from discrimination has drawn intense debate, including a comment from a local business owner about exposing people who do not support the resolution.
“The school board has received many hate-filled emails about this resolution,” said Melissa Lukeson during public comment at the May 9 school board meeting. “I sent a FOIA request to identify the people who were dumb enough to put their bigotry in the public record for the world to see.”
News 3’s team of investigators confirmed with a Virginia Beach Public Schools spokesperson that Lukeson’s public records request was granted. Lukeson’s comments have sparked discussions about who can make public records requests under FOIA – short for the Freedom of Information Act – and what documents can be released public under FOIA laws.
“Any citizen or any person can file a FOIA, or Freedom of Information Act [request], to any [government] agency,” said political and legal analyst Dr. Eric Claville. “If you're a private citizen, yes [you can file a FOIA request]. If you're a reporter, yes. If you are a legal professional attorney, yes. Anyone can file a Freedom of Information Act request.”
Federal, state and local government records subject to FOIA requests include but are not limited to text messages and emails sent to or from government-owned accounts, spending records, surveillance videos, 911 calls, and travel records of government employees.
“You can request any document under that [government] agency except for three exclusions,” said Dr. Claville. “Those three exclusions are information that is classified under what's called national security information; information solely related to the internal personnel rules and practices of the agency; and any information that is prohibited by disclosure by another federal law.”
Government agencies can charge for the documents, but agencies are prohibited from charging unreasonably high fees.
“The law actually provides for the use of [a government agency’s] time, or the efforts that it takes for agency to produce [those documents],” said Dr. Claville. “The law does prohibit any charge that is exorbitant to any person that's requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
Government agencies must also respond to every FOIA request, and provide lawful reasons for any denials.
“An office must respond to the request […] within five working days of receiving it,” said Dr. Claville. “If there is more information that's needed [to fulfill the request] that timeline does start over.”
FOIA requests can be made in person, however many government agencies provide online portals to request public records. You have a right to inspect or get copies of public records.
You can learn more about thefederal FOIA guidelines and Virginia FOIA guidelines.
