The Freedom of Information Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) recently urged Congress to revise the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Their proposal, if adopted, would likely water down privacy protections for both students and parents. The resolution states: Whereas, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, called “FERPA,” was…
Category: Youth & Schools
Reply, not Reply All: Friday edition
The graduate dean at the University of Missouri at Columbia mistakenly sent to a listserv for graduate students this week an e-mail reply that referred to what he perceived as a student’s “mental distress,” forcing him to follow up Thursday with a broad apology for the privacy breach. In the e-mail apologizing to Missouri’s grad…
Supreme Court to rule on whether kids can be interviewed in school without warrants in sex abuse cases
Lyle Denniston reports on SCOTUSBlog: The Supreme Court, stepping into a new controversy over child sex abuse, agreed on Tuesday to decide whether the Constitution puts limits on the authority to interview children at school about claims of sexual assault. The specific issue is whether police and social workers must obtain a warrant before conducting…
Lower Merion School District and Blake Robbins Reach a Settlement in Spycamgate
Over on Forbes, Kashmir Hill discusses the settlement in the Lower Merion webcam civil suits that have been discussed on this site previously. As reported last night, the two civil suits settled for $610k, with the lawyer getting the bulk of the settlement, presumably to cover all his time in court seeking an injunction, payment…