Denver schools subpoena TV station for reporting materials

TV station KUSA received a subpoena from the Denver, Colorado, school district on Aug. 11, 2025, seeking communications it had for a story with former Principal Kurt Dennis.

Dennis was fired from a Denver middle school after sharing student information with the station and later filed a federal lawsuit claiming the district violated his First Amendment rights.

As part of the lawsuit, Denver Public Schools sought KUSA’s unaired footage and communications with Dennis to determine whether he had unlawfully disclosed student information. The district had pointed to a redacted form in the broadcast that differed from the one Dennis submitted in his lawsuit.

During a Dec. 8 court hearing, Dennis’ attorney David Lane admitted that his client had provided the outlet with documents showing a student’s personal identifying information, Colorado Politics reported.

That admission prompted U.S. District Judge John Kane to quash the subpoena, noting the district could obtain the information directly from Dennis.

“Mr. Dennis is one of two parties in possession of the documents — the other being KUSA — and he has produced them,” Kane said, according to Colorado Politics. “I do not hold that overriding the reporter’s privilege in this case is appropriate.”

Dennis spoke to KUSA shortly after a high school student shot two administrators in 2023 during a routine pat-down. He told the station that another student with serious criminal allegations was subject to the same protocol at his school, but the district denied his requests to expel or block the student from attending school in person.

Dennis had tried to redact the student’s name, but had failed to maintain the student’s anonymity, KUSA attorney Steven Zansberg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a statement.

Zansberg called the subpoena “legally deficient” and “utterly frivolous” once Dennis provided the documents he had shared with the station.

“Once Dennis confessed that previously contested fact, there was absolutely no legal basis for DPS to continue pursuing its ‘fishing expedition’ subpoena against the station,” Zansberg wrote.

Bill Good, a spokesperson for the school system, told the Tracker in a statement that the district filed the motion to prove Dennis violated the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and state juvenile records laws by giving unredacted documents to the media.

Good called the process a win, noting the school system received additional documentation from the former principal’s counsel that had not been previously shared.

“DPS does not believe it would have received these additional materials absent its attempt to compel 9News to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena,” he wrote.