KY school district responds to lawsuit from Texas education activist: ‘Bless his heart’
A prominent school choice advocate has filed a lawsuit in federal court against a Kentucky public school district that blocked him on Facebook.
Corey DeAngelis, a social media figure and author from Texas who calls himself a “school choice evangelist,” filed suit against Pulaski County Schools Wednesday because the school’s Facebook page blocked him on the social media site and deleted his comments from the page last August.
He says the conduct amounts to a violation of his First Amendment rights.
“By attempting to suppress any suggestion that it might be violating Kentucky law by using its official page to campaign against Amendment 2, the District engaged in unlawful viewpoint discrimination. Speech discussing political and legislative issues and the actions of public entities is at the core of the First Amendment’s protection,” the lawsuit reads.
The suit named several defendants, including the school board, each of its members, the superintendent and “the employee responsible for acting as administrator of the Pulaski County School District’s Facebook page.”
Pulaski County Schools Superintendent Patrick Richardson, in responding to a Herald-Leader request for comment, wrote in an email that he had yet to be briefed on the lawsuit.
“I wonder why a person from Texas would be so interested in Kentucky, especially Pulaski County,” Richardson wrote. “I really don’t have a comment on something I have not officially been made aware of yet.”
Richardson added: “Bless his Heart.”
This is not DeAngelis’ first tiff with the school district for Pulaski County, whose county seat is Somerset and is home to about 65,000 people.
The activist had previously railed against posts made by the Pulaski County Schools Facebook page in August 2024 advocating against 2024’s Amendment 2 ballot question, which would have allowed for the state to help fund nonpublic and charter K-12 schools. School choice advocates like DeAngelis and a majority of Republicans in the legislature supported the measure.
Amendment 2 ended up losing by nearly 30 points statewide, suffering a defeat in each of Kentucky’s 120 counties. In Pulaski County, traditionally a GOP stronghold, the amendment lost by about 26 percentage points.
However, at the time of the school district’s August post, DeAngelis and other school choice advocates notched a win.
Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman issued an opinion against the school district’s posts, saying that tax dollars “must not be used to advocate for or against the amendment.”
The district removed the posts, but DeAngelis’ lawsuit states it also restricted public comments and later blocked DeAngelis from its page shortly thereafter.
The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Kentucky, seeks a permanent injunction ordering the district and its employees to “refrain from blocking Mr. DeAngelis or other members of the public from interacting with the District’s official Facebook page based on viewpoint.”
It also asks for a judgment that the district violated DeAngelis’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech as well as nominal damages and attorney fees.
DeAngelis’ attorneys on the case are Northern Kentucky Republican attorney Steven Megerle and Dean McGee of the Texas-based conservative group Liberty Justice Center.
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 11:05 AM.
