Court rules against school district that denied mother access to DEI training materials

March 12, 2025

A three-judge panel from a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has ruled in favor of a mother who was denied access to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) materials being used by her children’s public school district.

The Christian Post reports that the Downingtown Area School District was in the wrong for denying a request by Ann Trethewey for DEI materials being used to instruct her children and their teachers.

The school district claimed to be exempt from having to disclose the information because it “constitutes or reveals a trade secret or confidential proprietary information.”

The court, however, ruled that the DEI materials did not constitute trade secrets since they are openly shared with employees.

In the majority opinion, President Judge Emerita Mary Hannah Leavitt states, “A trade secret is essential to the product, but it is not the product itself. For example, Coca Cola uses a secret formula to create its product known as ‘Coke.’ [The author] did not identify a ‘formula’ or ‘algorithm’ that was the secret to the creation of his product, which is DEI training material. Because that product is widely shared to School District employees, it is not secret.” 

Trethewey filed her request in January 2023 seeking all documents, presentations and paper or electronic materials used by the DEI Program Director and staff to instruct or train staff or students in the school district.

District DEI Director Justin Brown claimed that he had created the materials before being employed by the district and that disclosing them would cause him “substantial commercial and competitive harm.”

Wally Zimolong, one of the attorneys who represented Trethewey, called the court ruling “a crucial victory in the fight for parental rights and government transparency.”

In a statement to the Christian Post, Zimolong added, “But the fight to protect parental rights isn’t over. School districts across the country continue to use secrecy, including unfounded claims of trade secrets and proprietary information, as a shield to push ideological agendas.”

Zimolong cautioned, “We must remain vigilant and persistent in defending transparency, because parents have a right to know what their children are being taught in taxpayer-funded schools.”

Photo: top, Credit: iStock/Trong NGuyen