Anchor Kyle Clark and the company that owns 9NEWS are suing the Douglas County School District’s records custodian for refusing to disclose a Colorado Open Records Act request that sought the names of teachers who called in sick Feb. 3 to protest actions by majority members of the school board.

Clark was one of several journalists and members of the public who asked for copies of the CORA request, according to an online log published by the district.

They were told the request is not a public record because it was withdrawn by the requester.

But the lawsuit filed April 6 by Clark and TEGNA Inc. points out that CORA’s definition of “public records” includes any “writing” that is “made, maintained or kept” by a political subdivision of the state (such as a school district) “for use in the exercise of functions required or authorized by law or administrative rule.” Access to public records can be denied only if an exemption in CORA or another state law applies.

Under that statutory definition, “there can be no serious claim” that requests submitted on a form provided by the school district are not “maintained or kept” by the school district, attorney Steve Zansberg wrote in a Mar. 11 letter to the district’s general counsel on Clark’s behalf.

“And, once such a form has been completed and submitted, it remains thereafter, a ‘public record,’” he maintained. Withdrawing a request “does not, in any way, transform the writing into something else.”