A public school teacher in Fairfax County is suing her school district for withholding public records mentioning her name.
Julie Perry, a history teacher at Centreville High School in Northern Virginia, filed a Freedom of Information Act request on May 29 for emails from Assistant Superintendent Penny Gros because she felt like her job was threatened after a controversial tweet about the transgender community targeting autistic kids.
The district produced only one document, but Perry knew something was missing.
Nine months earlier, Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak had submitted a request for documents containing Perry’s name. Rosiak received 14 documents mentioning Perry, 13 of which were withheld from Perry’s request.
Now, Perry is suing the district, demanding it hand over all documents related to her FOIA request, pay a civil penalty, and pay Perry’s legal fees. Attorney Hayden Fisher is representing Perry and told The Daily Signal he plans to file another lawsuit soon on behalf of Fairfax County mom who also says the district withheld documents from her FOIA request and overcharged her.
Perry told The Daily Signal she feels called to speak up for civil liberties and stand up for kids.
“I want people to see that not every teacher is radical left,” Perry said. “I want people to see that there are teachers that are so tired of what’s going on in schools and are not happy about it, and I realize either I speak up or nobody else is going to do it.”
Fairfax County said it has not yet been served with Perry’s lawsuit. Fisher filed the lawsuit on Saturday and sent the district a copy of it on Sunday.
“FCPS has not been served with the lawsuit and so we cannot comment on a lawsuit we have not received and reviewed,” media outreach specialist Steven Brasley told The Daily Signal.
Brasley did not answer The Daily Signal’s question about if the district purposefully withheld documents from Perry.
This is not the first time Fairfax County has targeted Perry for her conservative viewpoint. When Perry ran for state Senate, her opponent, Democrat Stella Pekarsky, was involved in discussions about whether to punish Perry for the social media post about transgenderism and autistic kids, The Daily Wire reported.
A donor for Pekarsky sent Perry’s high school principal a complaint about her posts, public records show. The principal forwarded the complaint to Gros, who said she would seek guidance about what to do. The records show Gros seems to have sought the guidance from Pekarsky.
Perry then received a memo threatening her job.
“As an FCPS employee, your posts—whether personal or professional—reflect not only upon you but also upon the school division,” the memo said. “The content of your posts should not impair your capacity to maintain the respect of students and parents, nor impair your ability to effectively perform your job. Any action that brings the school system into disrepute may be just cause for dismissal.”
Perry’s tweet, which garnered complaints from fellow staff members, discussed the pattern she has seen in her classes of autistic kids identifying at transgender.
“The far-left uses the literal mentality of children with Autism to abuse them in this manner,” the May 6 post on X said. “This is why children with Autism need greater protection.”
Vanessa Hall, co-director of Fairfax County’s LGBT Pride club, sent an email to Perry’s principal complaining about the post, which was obtained through Rosiaks’ FOIA request and shared with The Daily Signal.
“I need to be clear that I have refrained from contacting you about her numerous social media posts that are homophobic, transphobic, and deeply hurtful to the entire community,” Hall said. “She demonizes so many in the community based on their identity whether it be social, racial, gender, political, or religious identity. I find it upsetting, but I believe firmly in free speech no matter how much I may dislike it.”
“However, these tweets below show that she is using students for her political gain,” Hall’s complaint continued. “She has crossed a serious ethical line if she is willing to release personal information about her students to the public on social media in direct violation of school policy and parental rights.”
“Part of the reason the Left acts the way they act is because nobody stands up, nobody forces them to face consequences,” Perry told The Daily Signal.
“That’s why people need to face consequences when they break the law, and so that’s what I’ve learned,” the teacher continued. “I always give this to God, and I’ve always learned, as long as I’m doing the right thing, God will always provide.”