Rhode Island parent Nicole Solas wants to know what a local educator is teaching students after he posted online videos deriding slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk — but it will cost her.
The Barrington Public Schools said it would charge $117,130.50 to fulfill her public-records request for classroom materials used by Benjamin Fillo, a Barrington High School social studies teacher, as well as any of his emails written in the past 10 years that contain the word “Trump.”
Now an attorney with the Goldwater Institute’s American Freedom Network is challenging the cost estimate on Ms. Solas’ behalf, arguing that the price tag “effectively shields the requested Records from disclosure.”
“It should never cost $117,000 to see the curriculum materials of a single social studies teacher in a public school because those materials are already paid for by the taxpayer,” Ms. Solas said in a statement on Wednesday. “Barrington Public School District’s exorbitant fee weaponizes Rhode Island’s Access to Public Records Act to block access to public information about what students are being taught instead of simply handing over the materials free of charge.”
She submitted her public-records requests a week after Mr. Fillo lambasted Kirk as “a man who hated the LGBTQ community” in the hours following the Turning Point USA founder’s Sept. 10 assassination at Utah Valley University.
“What a piece of garbage,” Mr. Fillo said in a TikTok video. “This is what happens. I’m curious if we’re going to want to take guns away now, from what will inevitably be the White man who shot and killed him. Bye, Charlie.”
In another post, he said, “There is outrage on the right today because someone who was a mouthpiece for their hatred and their bigotry met his maker. And let’s be clear, that maker is not in heaven. Charlie Kirk is not in heaven right now.”
Mr. Fillo has since been placed on paid administrative leave and removed from his position as co-president of the National Education Association-Barrington. The district has also hired counsel to investigate the matter.
Why the six-figure tab to produce open records? Deidre Carreno, an attorney for the district, said it would take 7,735.5 hours for staff at $15 per hour to accumulate the classroom materials used by Mr. Fillo over 15 years, resulting in a cost of $116,032.50.
“The School Department will be required to search and retrieve information related to one hundred fifty-seven (157) courses taught over the course of fifteen (15) years, stored on three (3) different learning management systems,” Ms. Carreno said in her Sept. 24 response. “The School Department estimates that three (3) instructional materials, supplementary materials, handouts, dittos, assignments, videos, links, resources, guides, worksheets, workbooks, prompts and/or other curriculum or other records were used per class, per day for a total of two hundred seventy (270) resources per class.”
Apparently, Mr. Fillo had much to say about the president.
Ms. Solas’ first request yielded 789 emails with the word “Trump” from Sept. 1, 2024, to the present. Her second request, seeking communications from Jan. 1, 2016, to Sept. 1, 2024, unearthed 1,438 emails.
Ms. Carreno said that retrieving the 2,227 “Trump” emails would take more than 71 staff hours and cost $1,098, although she noted that the first hour would be free.
The Goldwater Institute accused the district of enacting a “paywall” to conceal the information from the public.
“These are straightforward records that should be easy to produce, but rather than being transparent with the public, the district is hiding this information behind a prohibitive fee estimate,” said Kamron Kompani, Goldwater legal programs manager.
Can Barrington, Rhode Island @bps_ri teacher & NEA Barrington President Benjamin Fillo confirm/deny he made this video saying Charlie Kirk
— Nicole Solas, Sued by the Teachers Union (@Nicoletta0602) September 11, 2025
“thought he proved how tough he was with his words…What a piece of garbage. Look what happens…Bye, Charlie!”
It’s inhumane. pic.twitter.com/KD473ndMMY
This isn’t Ms. Solas’ first battle over public records with Rhode Island school officials.
Last year, she won a court decision against the South Kingstown School District after she was told that producing her daughter’s kindergarten curriculum in response to an open-records request would cost $74,000.
James McGlone, an attorney with Goldwater’s American Freedom Network, advised the district in an Oct. 24 letter to release the documents free of charge or at a substantial discount, arguing Ms. Solas is likely to prevail in court.
Mr. Fillo’s “curriculum materials and conduct as a teacher are manifestly a subject of high public interest, warranting disclosure at no cost,” Mr. McGlone said.
“Thus without (at minimum) a drastic revision of the Response’s cost estimate, the Superior Court will likely find your client in violation of the APRA; order full production of the Records at no cost to Ms. Solas; charge your client with Ms. Solas’ reasonable attorney’s fees and costs; and potentially assess civil fines as well,” he said in the letter.
The Washington Times has reached out to Barrington Public Schools for comment.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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