Federal Judge Kathryn H. Vratil has ordered USD 497 Lawrence to pay over $113,000 in attorneys’ fees for a group of student plaintiffs after the district was found to have violated KORA (the Kansas Open Records Act). According to the Lawrence Times, the ruling is part of “a broader dispute that began with the district’s use of Gaggle, an AI tool that sifts through anything attached to the district’s Google Workspace and flags content it deems a safety risk.” The Times reported that nine current and former students sued over the tool saying it was a privacy violation. In November 2025, the plaintiffs added a list of Kansas Open Records Act complaints after the district failed to follow Kansas law in responding to requests related to Gaggle and its switch to ManagedMethods, which is a tool similar to Gaggle. In April of 2026, Vratil found the district had violated KORA by not acting quickly on the plaintiff’s requests and set a deadline for the district to do so. According to the Times, Vratil ruled that delaying the fulfillment of the request for months and attempting to charge a “go-away” price of $13,000 for the records was “not in good faith.” On Monday, July 27, 2025, Vratil ruled the district must pay 113,480 — $112,425 in attorney fees for nearly 250 hours of work, and $1,055 in costs — by Aug. 23, 2026. According to the Times, plaintiff attorney Harrison Rosenthal said the ruling is important because the plaintiffs were forced to go to federal court for public records. Moreover, the district appeared to have changed its KORA policy after the lawsuit was filed, having previously provided public records to students at no charge.
Read more: The Sentinel
