HARRISBURG — A federal judge has agreed to unseal documents in a lawsuit brought by parents whose daughter died of suicide after being expelled from school.
Julie Wartluft and Frederick Bartels sued Milton Hershey School and the Hershey Trust in June 2016 after the 2013 death of their 14-year-old daughter, alleging her suicide resulted from discrimination and was linked to two hospitalizations for severe depression. In an opinion issued Oct. 22, U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson of the Middle District of Pennsylvania wrote about collateral disputes that “threaten to overtake and displace the resolution” of the parents’ claims.
The current issue is The Philadelphia Inquirer’s motion to intervene in order to unseal several documents. Carlson said the newspaper insists it’s “motivated by the public’s interest in access to information concerning the activities of this billion-dollar trust, contends that the public has a right of access to these documents and asserts that the defendants have not made the requisite individualized showing of good cause necessary for these documents to remain sealed.”
Carlson further wrote that the school and trust positioned their argument in the context of a longstanding feud with the Protect Hershey’s Children advocacy group and its president, attorney Ric Fouad.
“Drawing a series of connections between Fouad, the Inquirer, and one of its writers,” Carlson wrote, “Milton Hershey invites us to view this motion through a dark prism and see the motion as yet another ideologically driven effort to cast the Hershey Trust in an unfair light.”
Carlson said the Inquirer’s request will not stall proceedings nor was it untimely filed. He further ruled the school’s blanket opposition based on potential prejudice against its defense is inferior to the option of unsealing the files subject to redactions to protect the privacy of third parties.
However, Carlson did not agree to unseal a document containing findings of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission from a different lawsuit involving the school. He noted after the parents introduced the file the school immediately moved for secrecy, and Chief Judge Christopher Conner conducted a telephone conference with both sides before agreeing to seal the document and said he would not disturb that finding. Carlson also said the parents could challenge through a motion to reconsider that specific ruling.