I’m no longer amazed when journalists occasionally report as news that schools cannot reveal disciplinary outcomes of students due to FERPA. In today’s installment, Michael Brindley reports: When students are disciplined for bullying, privacy laws prevent school officials from telling victims and their parents what action was taken, Superintendent Mark Conrad said last week. During…
Category: Youth & Schools
Lower Merion SD settles two webcam lawsuits for $610k
MaryClaire Dale of The Associated Press reports that Lower Merion School District will pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits stemming over webcam surveillance on district-issued laptops. District officials say they voted Monday night to pay Robbins $175,000 and his lawyer, Mark Haltzman, $425,000 for his work on the case. A second student will get $10,000.
Using RFID tags to track students: peering into the crystal ball
Jennifer Radcliffe of the Houston Chronicle reports that RFID tags for tracking students is in use the Spring and Santa Fe school districts. Spring has been steadily expanding the system since December 2008. Currently, about 13,500 of the district’s 36,000 students have the upgraded badges, which are just slightly thicker than the average ID tag…
Restoring American Privacy
Wendy Kaminer writes: A recent string of gay teen suicides, brought to light by Tyler Clementi’s leap off the George Washington bridge, is creating a “teachable moment” for gay rights activists, today’s Washington Post declares. I hope they’re right, and the tragic deaths of Clementi and others will help de-legitimize discrimination based on sexual orientation or…