Prince William schools shield superintendent’s Twitter messages to students

Prince William County Schools won’t show the Tweets that have now become the center of a legal investigation into the school division’s superintendent.

A law firm is now reviewing Tweets from Dr. Steven L. Walts, the 15-year chief of the county’s school division, after county resident Guy Morgan, of Gainesville, alleged the superintendent was using his social media account to exchange private, inappropriate comminution with students via Twitter’s direct message feature. Direct messages do not appear in the public timeline of a Twitter user.

That legal firm was hired back in March, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, to review the communications and consult with the county school board on how to respond to those Tweets.

Last month, the school division hired more lawyers, adding to the team it assembled in March, to dive deeper into its internal investigation into Walt’s Twitter use.

A Potomac Local News investigation of Walts’s public Twitter timeline shows he used the social media platform to communicate with students in a manner that defies the school division’s established electronic communication policies that ban employees from accessing student’s personal accounts and using cell phones and other personal forms of electronic communication to communicate with students.

PLN found Walts regularly used Twitter to communicate with students during late evening and overnight hours, as well as during times when classes are session. Over the years, he’s developed a likable personality on Twitter, sharing videos of him singing and playing the piano to announce school weather closures with his more than 30,000 followers.

Walts temporarily suspended his Twitter account @SuperPWCS on May 8.

The school division denied our request to see the Tweets, and provided this following response to our request:

The materials you have requested consist of a single conversation that is comprised of 21 messages to and from the Division Superintendent within your specified timeframe. These materials are maintained both within the Division Superintendent’s official Twitter account and in the form of an electronic archive of account data, including direct messages exported from Twitter. All such messages, regardless of form or format, constitute correspondence of the Division Superintendent and, as such, are exempt from mandatory disclosure under § 2.2-3705.7(2) of FOIA.

As you may be aware, the School Board has engaged outside counsel to conduct an internal investigation examining the direct messages of the Division Superintendent. The release of those messages at this time may interfere with the investigation. Once that investigation is completed, however, the School Board may determine whether further disclosures on this subject matter are permissible and appropriate.

The school division also sent the same denial to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors which asked to obtain the communications in order to publish them to a public website.

Once complete, the final report produced by the law firm will be handed to the school division’s staff attorney for review. It will be up to the county school board to release the report to the public, which funded its production.

Last month, Walts issued a statement stating he is the victim of a political smear campaign but failed to provide specifics. Former Prince Willam County School Board Chairman At-large Ryan Sawyers abruptly resigned without reason in 2018, about a week after he called for Walts to resign.

In 2015, a judge tossed out a lawsuit by Patriot High School Principal Michael Bishop, claiming that Sawyers and Morgan tired to soil Bishop’s reputation through a series of emails to get him fired from his job.

Bishop and Sawyers ran competing Little League Baseball teams, Gainesville Haymarket Baseball League, which Bishop led, and the Bull Run Little League, Sawyers led.

Over time, Walts has become the highest-paid public school superintendent in Virginia and one of the most highly-paid in the U.S. with a salary of $430,752 salary with benefits.

The investigation into his Twitter account isn’t showing him down. On Friday, Walts rehashed a 2017 plan from Sawyers to rename Stonewall Jackson High and middle schools near Manassas. The plan, which Walts says will combat racism in the school division, would also prevent the Confederate Battle Flag from being displayed on school property, as well as prevent students from possessing such a flag or wearing prints that depict the battle flag.

Current School Board Chairman At-large Babur Lateef is supportive of the measure.

The next meeting of the Prince William County School Board is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 10, at the Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center, at 14715 Bristow Road at Independent Hill near Manassas.