I am close to my 11th year anniversary of writing this Fishers local news blog.  I do the best I can as a one-man-band volunteer journalist to provide straightforward local news coverage.  Sometimes, I have found it  necessary to offer a commentary and, very rarely, take a clear stand on a local issue.

There was one issue where I did take a clear stand and the Indiana Supreme Court has just ruled on that issue.  Let me explain some of the background.

(NOTE:  Television station WTHR was at the center of all this and has a good background you can find at this link)

It all started roughly 5 years ago when Fishers High School teacher and varsity football coach Rick Wimmer was suspended for 5 days.  The investigative reporting team at television station WTHR asked HSE Schools the factual basis for that suspension, citing that specific language in the state statute.

HSE Schools responded saying Wimmer had violated school policy and provided a ream of policies he might have violated.  WTHR asked for two rulings from the Indiana Public Access Counselor about this, and that office appeared to side with WTHR, saying more specific facts were needed to be consistent with the state statute.

When HSE Schools refused to disclose anything more, WTHR went to court.  The Public Counselor rulings are advisory, but a court can compel the local school district to provide more facts on the suspension.

Reporter Bob Segall and WTHR received support from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, taking HSE Schools to court, asking for the specific factual basis for the suspension.  The Hamilton County Circuit Court and the Indiana Court of Appeals sided with HSE Schools.  WTHR appealed to the Indiana Supreme Court, and those justices recently ruled unanimously that HSE Schools did not follow state statutes and must disclose a specific factual basis for the Wimmer suspension.

When this was being reported by WTHR, I wrote commentaries that the local schools should be more forthcoming.  It was my view then, and now, that taking this issue all the way to the Supreme Court is not a good image for our school district.  People talk often about transparency and this is the most clear case I have seen where transparency is tested.

Let’s just say I received some criticism about those commentaries.  No one publicly criticized me, but I had private discussions with some officials that were not happy with the stance that I took on what needed to be disclosed about the Wimmer suspension.

I’ve written this before and I will do so again here – I spent 28 years in the federal civil service.  Employee privacy is something I fully understand.  But in this case, admitting I am no attorney, the state statute language appeared clear to me.  ‘

I knew when this case went before the justices of the Indiana Supreme Court, whatever decision was made would impact public employees throughout Indiana.

So,  we now know HSE Schools must disclose a factual basis for the Rick Wimmer suspension.  The fact that Mr. Wimmer has retired as both a coach and teacher at this point in time makes no difference.

The Indiana Supreme Court decision remands this case back to the Hamilton County court system, so this is not entirely over yet.

In my view, Indiana’s highest court made the correct decision in this case.