The Colorado state teachers union and its Woodland Park affiliate are suing the Woodland Park School District and board of education for allegedly violating teachers’ First Amendment rights to free speech and free association.

The federal lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges brought against the district this summer.

In February, Woodland Park changed its policy governing employees’ outside communication, stating they may neither be interviewed by the press about school or student matters nor post on social media about district or school decisions without prior written consent from the superintendent. The policy deems any violation as insubordination, which is subject to disciplinary measures up to termination.

The federal lawsuit brought by the Colorado Education Association and the Woodland Park Education Association also accuses the district of violating Colorado Open Meetings Law by amending the policy in secret and without public notice. Staff members were first notified retroactively two weeks after the change.

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Among its asks, the lawsuit requests the court strike down the policy as unconstitutional, nullify actions taken under its amended language and declare employees who speak publicly as private citizens about matters of public concern immune from retaliation or discipline.

“Educators have a right to talk about their working conditions,” CEA President Amie Baca-Oehlert said. “Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, and if they are a matter of public concern, we certainly should be able to lift our voices to raise those things up.”

In a written response, Superintendent Ken Witt likened the recent flurry of lawsuits to “a coordinated political attack by various actors and progressive groups” who are attempting to intimidate district leaders into walking back their recent “parent and student friendly policies and practices.”

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“I believe the employees who may have been concerned about the (communication) policy are those who have been historically conditioned to feel free to take private HR and student matters into the public using social media. Whatever the court may decide in this case, the striking lack of professionalism and ethics on the part of those who are feigning to be offended is heartbreaking,” Witt’s statement reads.

The lawsuit, which names WPEA President Nate Owens as its plaintiff, also accuses the district of compelling its employees to join an anti-union organization. The district in May announced it would provide staff with professional liability insurance through memberships in the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE), which claims union tactics such as “strikes, sick outs and other disruptions to education denigrate the teaching profession.”

WPE members who “do not agree with PACE as an organization, its goals, its political beliefs, its messaging, or its purpose nor do they want to receive its propaganda” were not allowed to opt out of joining the organization, the lawsuit alleges. Compelling speech in such a way is also a violation of the First Amendment, according to the lawsuit.

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Since Witt assumed the interim superintendent position in January, Woodland Park passed in quick succession a number of big-picture changes. Most notable among them were the so-called employee gag order; the decision not to reapply for $1.5 million of grants toward mental health services; and the adoption of a new markedly conservative social studies curriculum standard known as the American Birthright.

Witt said at the time he did not anticipate large scale curriculum changes as a result of the new standard. A civil disobedience course was the first to undergo changes when the teacher was instructed to remove a book deemed racist toward white people from its required readings.

“It seems very unusual, as well as the way that those changes were made, many of them not being in public or with public input,” Baca-Oehlert said. “There are superintendent changes that happen often across the state in various districts, yet we don’t see this level of chaos and change that’s happening the way it is in Woodland Park. It’s certainly not usual.”

The district was hit with two other lawsuits in recent weeks.

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In a July 31 lawsuit, a neo-pagan mother in the district who was banned from visiting her children’s elementary school after reading oracle cards to them during lunch alleges the district violated her First Amendment rights to freedom of religion by discriminating against her faith.

Just last week the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the district for banning a former employee from school property and district-hosted events after he made a brief sarcastic remark during a June 4 board meeting. The school board lifted its ban one day after the suit was filed.

“We want to stand in solidarity with the educators of Woodland Park School District, but also to show and send the message that this is about ensuring the rights of educators all across the state, no matter where they work, are protected and upheld,” Baca-Oehlert said. “It absolutely is not a political matter. It is a matter of ensuring that an educator’s rights are being upheld.”

Witt maintains the district’s actions demonstrate its commitment “to de-politicize education and to refocus on academics instead of ideologies.”