News groups sue Bettendorf schools after media excluded

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Des Moines, IA (AP) — Four eastern Iowa media organizations are joining a nonprofit media rights group in filing a lawsuit against the Bettendorf school board and other officials after they blocked journalists from covering a meeting about school violence that was attended by hundreds of people.

The lawsuit filed Monday by the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, the Quad-City Times and television stations KWQC, WQAD and WHBF asks a state court judge to find the school district in violation of Iowa’s open meetings law and to issue an injunction prohibiting the school board from violating the statute in the future.

The lawsuit also asks the court to fine members of the board who took part in the meeting held on May 25.