DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — Video from a 2016 altercation between a student and the wife of Central Dauphin East High School's principal has been public for weeks now.
However, the cost to fight it has not.
Invoices obtained by a former Central Dauphin School District (CDSD) board member Eric Epstein show the school district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Epstein's original estimate prior to obtaining the documents through his own Right-to-Know request was upwards of $250,000. The invoices show a much larger figure, ultimately paid for with taxpayer money.
FOX43 spoke with Craig Staudenmaier, who represented FOX43 in the seven-year legal fight to obtain the video.
"Whether it's the average citizen or not, or a media company, or whoever it is, is going to have to be incurring legal fees to fight these things," Staudenmaier said. "Especially all the way up to the Supreme Court. And it can get quite expensive."
From April 26, 2016, through Feb. 28, 2023, the information obtained by Epstein indicates CDSD paid more than $333,000 to the law firm Eckert Seamans. He believes at least $250,000 of that is for the video legal battle.
"I'm still a little dumbfounded as to why the district fought as hard as they did," Staudenmaier said. "Particularly under the facts of this particular case. But they know that better than I do, and you'd have to ask them that question."
FOX43 asked that question multiple times since the video was released on April 5, 2023. Several phone calls and emails about the legal costs remain unanswered.
Prior to the April 17 school board meeting, the question was asked if legal fees were in the $200,000 to $250,000 range as suggested by Epstein.
No response has been given to the question, and during the meeting, the superintendent called reporting on the matter "inaccurate" while reasoning the legal battle was to protect students' privacy.
'"Inaccurate media reports have claimed that the district spent $200,000 to keep a single school bus video from public access," CDSD Superintendent Dr. Norman Miller said during the April 17 meeting. "That's wrong."
However, to date, no one has offered proof of any reporting inaccuracy, nor a definitive answer from the administration on the actual cost.
To add, Staudenmaier says the argument presented by the district is flawed.
"That's what the Supreme Court said," Staudenmaier said. "Even though the video may be in an education record under FERPA, once the identifiers were taken out it no longer needed that protection and therefore was a public record."
Staudenmaier says the invoice records received by Epstein ultimately amount to the cost paid by taxpayers they didn't know about.
"Anytime taxpayer dollars are spent, the public normally has the right to know how and why," Staudenmaier said. "So you know, the video should have been made public long before it was."
Epstein's request was only partially granted and as of April 24, he has filed an appeal with the Office of Open Records.
He wants unredacted invoices to get a more detailed look at what the video battle really cost taxpayers.