Mother required to sign NDA to enter public middle school, lawsuit claims

A Texas mother was told earlier this month that she would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to enter the public school where she was attempting to re-enroll her child, according to a lawsuit obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Amber Longacre filed a complaint against Judson Independent School District after school officials allegedly told her that she had to sign an NDA to enter Kitty Hawk Middle School.

According to Longacre, she arrived at the middle school on August 15 to enroll her child for the upcoming school year but was prompted to sign the agreement. Photographs of the contract shared with the DCNF showed the NDA on an iPad with Longacre’s name pre-populated on the form.

During previous school years, parents and visitors were required to complete a check-in form and show photo identification when attempting to enter the campus, Longacre explained. She noted that they were never required to sign any contracts, particularly those restricting speech.

The district’s policy confirms that visitors must undergo a third-party “RAPTOR” check-in process to enter the school but does not mention any other updates to the policy, the DCNF reported.

When Longacre refused to sign the contract, she was denied access to the school and told that she could not re-enroll her child for the year, according to a video recording shared with the outlet.

In the video, Longacre discusses the NDA requirement with Assistant Superintendent of Operations Joseph Guidry, who claimed the contract was there to protect children.

Longacre said that she believed the district was attempting to hide something by forcing visitors to agree not to discuss their experiences at the school. She stated that she felt “backed into a corner.”

“I started thinking about all the people who were in a hurry. … It made me really nervous to think there were so many people who were signing it without even realizing what it was,” Longacre told the DCNF. “I told them that and they laughed at me. When they [laughed at me], I knew that something needed to be done.”

On August 22, Longacre was informed that visitors would no longer be asked to sign the agreement to access the school’s campus. Longacre stated that the district’s legal representative, lawyer Jameson Baker, told her the contract was a “default document within the District’s visitor system.”

Aaron Terr, the director of public advocacy with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told the DCNF, “It’s hard to understand why a school district would require students’ parents to sign this NDA as a condition to enter the school.”

“Judson Independent School District cannot broadly prohibit parents from discussing issues of information related to the school,” Terr added.

Judson Independent School District did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

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