Bernice Evans, mother of a 12-year old daughter, sued the board of education for releasing information regarding her daughter's medical condition to a local newspaper reporter. The newspaper article referred to a 12-year old female hermaphrodite with severe emotional and behavioral problems. School board members asserted that they were simply attempting to explain why the district needed to expand emergency funds to meet the needs of students with special problems. They further argued that the information did not personally identify the student because no name was revealed to the reporter.
1. Did the school board err in releasing this information? Why or why not?
2. Does Mrs. Evans have a valid claim? Why or why not?
3. Does the school board have a defensible basis for revealing the information? Why or why not?
4. How does the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act apply in this case?
5. How do you think the court would rule in this case?
6. Provide a rationale for your response.
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1. A school board may be held liable for their individual acts that result in the violation of student rights. The school board did not release the name of the student in this situation.
ReplyDelete2. Mrs. Evans may have a reasonable claim if she is able to show that with the information that was released by the school board the public was able to determine who the child was.
3. The school board will try to maintain that it did not violate FERPA because they did not release the name of the student.
4. The parents may be able to claim that FERPA because information from their child's permanent record were shared.
5. I believe the courts will rule in favor of the school district unless the parent can prove that by releasing the information people were able to determine who their child was.
6. The information released by the district did not name a specific student and therefore did not violate FERPA.
1. Although I do not think they violated the FERPA law, I do not think that it was necessary to give such detailed information about a child that could probably identify the child to members of the community.
ReplyDelete2. If she is able to prove that the information provided to the public allowed others to identify her child, she may have a case against the school board.
3. I think that the school board cold have come up with some statistics to explain to the public the needs for the emergency funds and left the specifics about the children out. However, I do not think they violated FERPA.
4. I do not think that it will because the child's name was not provided in the article.
5. I believe that the courts will rule in favor of the school board in this case.
6. I do not think that there are any administrative implications in this case. I do believe that they may need to rethink how things are written in the future so that they do not take the chance of possible violating FERPA.
1. No, it doesn’t appear to be any FERPA violation, but I did not see the need for the board member to be so descriptive.
ReplyDelete2. If Mrs. Evans can prove that there was malice involved than she possibly may have a case.
3. The board may claim that the name was not released and that they had a legitimate reason to disclose the information.
4. It applies, the information being discussed will probably only apply to a very select group of students if more than one in the school, as well as teachers and friends of that student will probably assume that student was being identified.
5. I think the court will rule in favor of the school unless the parent can prove malice and that injury has occurred to her daughter because of the act of the school releasing the information to the newspaper.
6. In small towns and communities personal information about its citizens may be known by individuals of the community such as her physician and its staff and close friends or students in PE class. The nature of the information could spark a great deal of interest surrounding the physical abnormality of this student may cause people to inquire in depth.
Yall answers suck. I guess I'll do my own work. lol
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