“A pattern of non-response:” Texas AG puts Canutillo ISD spokesman on notice

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Texas Attorney General's Office on Friday sent a letter to Canutillo Independent School District's director of communications demanding he comply with the state's Public Information Act. This, after failure to respond to open records requests –and even the attorney general’s own investigators, according to the letter. 

“Due to the district’s pattern of non-response, this office has determined the district failed to comply with the requirements of the Act in relation to the requests at issue,” the document stated.

In the letter, dated August 16, Open Records Division Chief Tamara Smith told Canutillo ISD's communications director Gustavo Reveles her office received four complaints the school district isn't responding to open record requests.

"The Office of the Attorney General received complaints from multiple requestors alleging Canutillo Independent School District (the “district”) has failed to respond appropriately to various requests for information under the Public Information Act (the “Act”), chapter 552 of the Government Code," Smith wrote.

The letter lists four case numbers for complaints, including one filed by ABC-7. 

That complaint was filed with the Texas Attorney General's Office over a year ago after the district ignored our April 5, 2023 request for videos of a suspected security incident at Canutillo High School. It was determined to be a senior prank involving water guns students used in the school’s gym. School officials said the incident happened on March 28, 2023, just one day after a school shooting in Nashville that left six dead. It triggered a security response.

Some students who witnessed the incident told ABC-7, at the time, they were afraid. The district said the prank violated school codes of conduct.

Another complaint was filed by government watchdog Max Grossman who requested the salaries of Canutillo ISD employees, and an accounting of planned expenditures related to the $387 million bond the district was proposing at the time, in April of 2024.

Grossman told ABC-7 the records were finally produced on May 10, 2024, far beyond the timeline dictated by Texas law, so he filed the complaint.

On Friday, he shared with reporters the same letter ABC-7 received from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office.

In it, Open Records Division Chief Tamara Smith told Reveles her office has "sent letters to the district by mail and/or electronic mail informing the district of the complaints and requesting a response to assist us in resolving these matters." 

Smith also wrote to Reveles her office had reached out to the district by phone and "as of the date of this letter" hadn't "received a response stating the district will comply with the requests at issue."

Under the Texas Public Information Act, a governmental body has 10 days to release the information, however, public information is supposed to be released promptly. If a governmental body believes the information is not public under the law, it can ask the Texas Attorney General's Office for an opinion.

ABC-7 reached out to the school district Friday and received the following written statement, "The District will work with the Attorney General’s Office for an appropriate response to these issues. The District continues to assert that it responded to media requests appropriately and that the records requests filed following the incident were non-responsive based on the open investigation at that time. Canutillo ISD prides itself on being open and available to media. We will continue our work to partner with journalists to help them fairly and accurately do their job."

Reveles had told ABC-7 in 2023 the investigation was closed and the videos of the prank in the school gym existed, as he had watched them.

Smith gave Reveles 60 days to take an “approved open records training course” and asked he send a certificate to her office upon completion. 

In the letter, Smith said if the district does not comply it will consider other options, including filing a court request to compel the district to turn over the records.