photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Lawrence school district offices building, located at 110 McDonald Dr., is pictured in May 2025.

The Lawrence school district has responded to an amended complaint in a lawsuit regarding its former use of Gaggle, acknowledging a quiet switch to a similar software but denying any legal wrongdoing in making the switch.

In November, the current and former students who filed a lawsuit against the school district for its use of Gaggle filed an amended complaint to the U.S. District Court of Kansas. It said that while the district had stopped using Gaggle, the district did not disclose a switch to a different student monitoring software, ManagedMethods, and is “thereby continuing the challenged practices under a different name without transparent Board action.”

As the Journal-World reported, the district’s transition to ManagedMethods was not voted on by board members and it wasn’t mentioned in court documents filed by the district at the end of October.

In the district’s response to the amended complaint filed on Friday, the district and school board “admit that ManagedMethods is capable of tracking browsing activity and that the School District has not publicly shared any information about the switch from Gaggle to ManagedMethods.” In addition, there was “minimal School Board involvement in the transition process,” and the decision was made in accordance with state law.

However, the district has argued that the lawsuit should be partially dismissed because there is no longer a contract with Gaggle, and in regards to ManagedMethods, the software is in place to be in compliance with legislation such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act and ensures student safety.

“No Defendants are liable under any of Plaintiffs’ claims because Defendants’ use of Gaggle and ManagedMethods was permitted — and perhaps even required — by the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000 and any other state or federal statutory or common-law rules requiring schools to protect and supervise children in their care,” the response said.

The amended complaint also alleged that the defendants failed to timely and lawfully respond to Kansas Open Records Act requests from The Budget, Lawrence High School’s student newspaper, and Free Press, Free State High School’s newsmagazine. These requests were regarding ManagedMethods and the vendor transition.

According to a legal memorandum filed by the district on Friday, the plaintiffs’ KORA claims were improper because they requested records related to this case while a court order temporarily paused discovery – the pretrial process where parties exchange information and evidence to prepare their case – until the court ruled on defendants’ motion to partially dismiss.

The memorandum added that courts have consistently held that KORA cannot be used to obtain case-related documents during a discovery stay in a federal case involving the same subject matter. Decisions from the District of Kansas have repeatedly allowed custodians to refuse KORA requests under these circumstances.

The lawsuit was filed by nine current and former Lawrence and Free State High School students in August, and it alleges that the Lawrence school district has been violating their First and Fourth Amendment rights by conducting illegal searches of the digital files the student journalists produce. The defendants in the case include the school district, the school board, Quentin Rials, principal at LHS, and Greg Farley, assistant principal at LHS.

The district has broadly denied the lawsuit, arguing that the amended complaint does not state a valid legal claim. The defendants also argue that they are immune from liability and claim sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment, asserting that the school district and school board are “arms of the state” and therefore cannot be sued for damages in federal court. They also argue that individual defendants Rials and Farley are protected by qualified immunity, meaning they cannot be sued unless they violated a clearly established constitutional right — which the district says didn’t happen.

At the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, Rials allegedly instructed journalism advisor Abbi Epperson-Ladd that neither The Budget nor its student reporters were allowed to cover the lawsuit. Rials later submitted a declaration that said, “The student journalists at Lawrence High School are not restricted in any manner from reporting on topics of interest.”

The district argues that no First Amendment violations occurred, claiming the flagged materials by Gaggle were not protected speech because they could involve obscenity, child pornography, threats, or speech tied to criminal conduct, the district’s response said.

“And no restrictions on speech occurred because Gaggle and ManagedMethods merely flagged and temporarily quarantined potentially problematic materials, and because students were free to use Microsoft 365 instead of the Google suite – another platform provided by the School District with equivalent capabilities and no Gaggle or ManagedMethods monitoring,” the response said.

It also claims no Fourth Amendment violations occurred either, saying that there were no unlawful searches or seizures because the monitored materials were stored on school-owned platforms, where students had no reasonable expectation of privacy.