On Nov. 21 we told you about an event hosted by the Gay-Straight Alliance group at Waukee Northwest High School. We were sent the story from concerned parents in the district who saw it in the school paper — the 10th St. Times.
The 10th St. Times didn’t post the story as its own piece online, but it could be found in the PDF version of the publication as of late December. Now, however, it appears that PDF has restricted access.
Our original story, which we attributed to the “school’s magazine,” highlighted the fact the “Blind Dates with a Queer Book” event at the school library involved 34 LGBTQ+ books wrapped in rainbow paper with a brief description of the book.
The school librarian, a person called Tara Rechkemmer, told the 10th St. Times that “it is completely free choice” when it comes to the school library.
“It is up to the student to decide what book is right for them and what book is not right for them,” Rechkemmer told the 10th St. Times.
The event’s goal was to “show the nuance of queer books and how many of their core concepts and ideas fit into common genres.” The GSA hoped the event would contribute to a “much better and healthier insight” into the LGBTQ community.
It appears the 10th St. Times and Waukee Northwest school officials were not pleased to see this story gain attention.
The 10th St. Times sent The Iowa Standard a certified letter accusing TIS of “unauthorized use” of the paper’s copyrighted work. The author and sender of the letter, who is never identified, states TIS never “asked for nor received permission” to use the article from 10th St. Times.
“Therefore, we believe you have willfully infringed upon our intellectual property under Title 17 of the U.S.C. and could be liable for statutory damages,” the unattributed letter said. “We demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing works derived from the (original 10th St. Times article), and all copies, including electronic copies, of same, that you deliver to me, if applicable, all unused, undistributed copies of same, or destroy such copies immediately and that you desist from this or any other infringement of our rights in the future.”
Even if we were to deliver copies to the author of the letter, that author never identifies him or herself.
The letter finished by giving The Iowa Standard a Jan. 1, 2023 deadline to indicate we have fully complied with the “requirements.” And if not, they will consider taking any and all legal remedies available to rectify the situation.
As I’ve pointed out, news sources publish stories and cite other media outlets all of the time. There are “Fair Use” exceptions to copyright, and a couple of those are criticism as well as news reporting, which is clearly what The Iowa Standard was doing in the Nov. 21 story.
When I saw the original story, I submitted an open records request with the district to find out what books were included in the event. It turns out, one of the most grotesque, banned books in the country was included.
Read about it below (the story continues after the link):
GROOMING 101: Waukee school library includes disgusting ‘Flamer’ in GSA blind book date event
We sent an email to the contacts we could find for the Waukee District, Northwest High School and 10th St. Times explaining a few aspects of the situation. We never received a response.
After receiving the certified letter from the 10th St. Times, we submitted an open records request to the Waukee District to find out where this unsigned letter originated.
It turns out that the letter came from the editor-in-chief of the publication. It appears there was hope the district’s lawyer would get involved, but that didn’t happen.
“First, the district lawyer is paid with taxpayer money, so they are worried about the backlash that may come from reaching out,” an email from the editor-in-chief said. “We are still able to send a cease and desist without legal assistance.”
The editor-in-chief said they wrote the letter and “had it reviewed by a lawyer at my mom’s work.”
“He says it all looks good,” the editor-in-chief wrote. “Our next step is to send this via certified mail and hope he cooperates.”
The letter was forwarded to an employee at the ITA Group.
All the while, the editor-in-chief had consulted with the 10th St. Times advisor, a person called Matt Blumberg, Waukee Northwest principal, a person called Nick Ross, and Rechkemmer, the school librarian.
“They are fully on board,” the editor-in-chief wrote.
The executive director of human resources for Waukee, a person called Roxy Livermore, was also consulted on the situation.
Sending the letter via certified mail was a “trick” shared with the 10th St. Times’ editor-in-chief by Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel of Student Press Law Center.
It should be noted our first story about this incident included a handful of previous stories we had written about Waukee Northwest High School, as this is yet another piece to the larger puzzle of an agenda being pushed by some inside the school and inside the district.
Never too young to learn that cease and desist letters get thrown in the circular file all the time I suppose.