The union is accusing Robinson of ‘meddling with public email records’ by dispatching Gmail messages designed to automatically ‘vanish’ after a set period.
AKRON, Ohio — Akron’s teachers union says it plans to file a new lawsuit against school district Superintendent Dr. Michael Robinson.
In a statement issued Monday, Akron Education Association President Pat Shipe accused Robinson of public records mismanagement, fiscal irresponsibility, and legal obstruction. The release further read, “We believe Dr. Robinson’s admitted tampering with public email records — sending emails that disappear under his control in an attempt to manage ‘sensitive’ topics — is a clear violation of Ohio public records laws.”
The announcement comes after the Akron Beacon Journal ran a story last week revealing Robinson and his chief of staff have been utilizing a “confidential mode” in Gmail that causes certain emails sent to staff members to automatically “dissolve” after a certain amount of time. Recipients of these messages can also not “forward, copy, print or download” them.
Akron Public Schools later gave a statement to the newspaper, saying records of the “confidential” emails do not get destroyed and that “records of their existence and content are retained within the district’s email system.” Robinson did not address the matter at Monday night’s board of education meeting.
3News spoke directly with Shipe, who called Robinson’s actions “illegal.” Her earlier written statement also threatened legal action against the board for members’ alleged “continued refusal to honor legitimate public records requests, and instead impeding, blocking, and denying these legal filings.”
“They continually state that they want to be completely transparent with the Akron community, with the public,” Shipe said of the board in our interview, “and we think this is anything but transparency.”
Robinson and the AEA have continually clashed since his tenure began last year, specifically over budget cuts and claims of “union busting” related to the elimination of 285 jobs this past spring. Robinson has denied such claims, calling them “the furthest thing from the truth.”
This is also not the first time the AEA has sought legal action against the current administration. Back in January, the union sued both the board and Robinson for suggestions of “intentionally” editing video of a board meeting to remove a member’s comments about a tutoring company. In September, however, the association moved to dismiss the suit, which Board President Diana Autry had called “meritless.”
As of Monday evening, the AEA had not yet officially filed a new lawsuit in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
