Los Lunas Parents Win Settlement After Threatened by School District Over Facebook Page

LOS LUNAS, N.M. – Two New Mexican parents who stood up for their free speech rights received settlements from the Los Lunas School District after they were threatened with legal action for refusing to take down the parent-operated Facebook forum “Los Lunas School District Parents Discussion Page.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico and Matthew M. Beck and Jacques H. Chouinard of Peifer, Hanson, Mullins & Baker, P.A. represented the parents, Rowena Tachias and Monique Dereta in the seven-year legal battle.

“We fought for seven long years with this case because if we didn't, who was going to?” said Rowena Tachias, co-administrator of the Facebook page and plaintiff in the case. “We weren’t going to let the superintendent or school district bully us. We have thousands of members on our page, and we were not going to let them all of a sudden be told you don’t have a voice anymore.”

The private page was founded in 2010 and has been administered by plaintiffs Rowena Tachias and Monique Dereta since 2011. The forum was created to connect parents and community members to freely discuss issues at schools in the district and other matters like school board candidates for elections.

Long- simmering tensions with the school district came to a head in 2018 after a parent used the page to report that a school principal had threatened a student. Days later, then superintendent Dana Sanders began persuing a trademark for “Los Lunas Schools,” and privately referring to the page as the “Haters page” with school board members. In 2019, after the trademark was granted, Sanders sent Tachias and Dereta a cease-and-desist letter accusing them of “unauthorized use of the Los Lunas Schools trademark for the purposes of criticizing and providing false information about the District.” In 2021, after unsuccessfully attempting to resolve the trademark dispute with the district, Tachias and Dereta sued, alleging the district’s actions were retaliatory acts meant to silence and punish them for exercising their First Amendment rights.

"This case was never really about a trademark issue,” said Matthew Beck, cooperating attorney in the lawsuit. “It was always about a school district trying to intimidate parents into silence. The district had no legitimate basis to go after our clients, and this settlement makes that clear."

On April 24, 2026, the Los Lunas School District agreed to settle the case for $145,000. The settlement was formalized by the court on June 26, 2026.

“The First Amendment protects the right for anyone to speak up and criticize those in power,” said Leon Howard, executive director at the ACLU of New Mexico. “That protection means nothing if school districts can threaten litigation and scare community members out of speaking up. This settlement is a victory for Ms. Tachias and Ms. Dereta, who simply wanted the best for Valencia County families and who shouldn’t have had to fight a legal battle to talk about school issues.”

"The district wants to keep parents scared and stupid. We want parents informed, active, and engaged. Don't try to silence parents and don't treat them like they are ignorant,” said Monique Dereta, co-administrator of the Facebook page and plaintiff in the case. “Parents need to fight for their kids, because if they don't, who will?"

The legal complaint and settlement agreement is available below.