The Citizen Playbook

You don’t need a lawyer. You need ten minutes.

The record is public by law — most of it is just never asked for. Below are two requests, already written. Copy one, paste it into the county’s official form, and the office is on the clock.

The Open-Records Arsenal

Two requests. Pre-written. Filed in ten minutes.

The Texas Public Information Act gives any person the right to these records. Rockwall County takes requests through one official form. Copy a request, open the form, paste, send.

The Classroom · the video-retention trail

Under the Texas Public Information Act (Government Code Ch. 552), I request the following records from the Rockwall County Criminal District Attorney's Office and Rockwall County:

1. All work orders, maintenance records, and video retention/deletion logs for the hallway surveillance system referenced in the 2023–2024 Rockwall ISD employee investigation.
2. All correspondence between the District Attorney's Office and Rockwall ISD, and between the District Attorney's Office and any investigating law-enforcement agency, concerning the preservation of that surveillance video.
3. The office's written records-retention policy and any litigation-hold or preservation notices issued in that matter.

Please provide records in electronic format. If any portion is withheld, identify the specific Government Code exception and request an Attorney General ruling as required by law.

The Crossing Guard · the special-prosecutor appointment

Under the Texas Public Information Act (Government Code Ch. 552), I request the following records from Rockwall County and the Rockwall County Criminal District Attorney's Office:

1. The order(s) appointing the Rockwall County Criminal District Attorney as special prosecutor or attorney pro tem in the 2017 matter arising from the fatal crash involving the Hunt County District Attorney.
2. All billing, expense, and reimbursement records related to that appointment.
3. All correspondence between the Rockwall County District Attorney's Office and any outside agency regarding that appointment or matter.

Please provide records in electronic format. If any portion is withheld, identify the specific Government Code exception and request an Attorney General ruling as required by law.

Open the County’s Official Request Form ↗

Opens Rockwall County’s Texas Public Information Act form in a new tab.

Say It On the Record

Three minutes at the microphone. Bring the question in writing.

Both boards meet on a public schedule and take public comment. Copy a question, sign up, and ask it on the record — silence is what lets the agenda pass.

Rockwall ISD Board of Trustees

My name is [your name] and I live in [your city]. I am asking the Board to state, on the record: what is the district's policy for preserving surveillance video when an employee is under investigation, and was that policy followed in the 2023–2024 case at Ouida Springer Elementary? If the hallway video was not preserved, who was responsible for preserving it, and what has changed so it cannot happen again? Parents were not notified when an accused employee returned to a classroom — what is the notification policy now?

Rockwall County Commissioners Court

My name is [your name] and I live in [your city]. I am asking the Court to request that the District Attorney's office publish annual, public case-outcome data — charges filed, dismissals, plea rates, and case-resolution times — so residents can measure the office's performance. Taxpayers fund this office; we are entitled to see its results, not just its budget line.

Occupy the Boardrooms

Empty auditoriums let agendas pass quietly. Showing up changes the optics — and the record.

Rockwall ISD Board of Trustees: attend the regular monthly meeting, sign up for public comment, and ask on the record why an accused employee was reassigned rather than removed.
County Commissioners Court: attend the public sessions and ask for a public audit of pre-trial diversion funds and case-outcome data.
Bring neighbors. A microphone used by ten residents reads very differently than one used by one.

Keep the Record Open

An office that has been held for roughly eighteen years does not answer to a single election — it answers to sustained, documented public attention. The point is not one campaign; it is a permanent, immovable audit.

File the requests above, then file again. Each response — or refusal — becomes part of the record.
Publish what you receive. Sunlight compounds; a document shared is a document that cannot be un-seen.
Organize your street. Ten residents who keep asking outlast any news cycle.

Have a document or a firsthand account? Submit it in confidence →