I was not being defensive. I was answering your question. I was fairly certain you did not ask your question to hear yourself talk. Sorry, I also get tired of rules and laws that seem to be in place for “certain” people and not others.
The law does not state that your right to privacy is protected only if certain information is compromised. It protects all information in a student’s personal file.
We are not a sue at whim people. We are looking for the best way to handle this situation and to assure that the offender is made to understand the seriousness of her actions. Also, to assure that the schools counselor understands as well her lack of diligences in doing her duty to protect the students rights (in this case,my daughters’ rights), this is part of her job. If it happened to my daughter with this one student, it can happen to anyone’s student with possible far worse consequences.
Our goal here is to assure that the possibility of this happening again, to anyones student, anywhere, is minimal. We are seeking to make the counselor, the principal, the school district aware of short comings in their system. The law is already in place. It is up to them to follow thru. It is also our goal to make parents of other students aware of how careful they need to be in protecting what they know/feel to be sensitive information concerning their student. The school so far hopes to bury this and keep it as quiet as possible.
The information that was purposely and maliciously gone after by the offending student was information as to why my daughter had gone to home study for the rest of the academic school year. Private and protected information. She is pregnant and is taking the last quarter of this school year at home. For many reason we have decided this is her best move.
There are many decisions that she will be forced to make in the upcoming months. The stress on her is already great. As well as a complication in her pregnancy, which makes matters even more stressful. Not an easy time in life for any person. She has already found that society treats her, the mother-to-be, much different then the boy the father-to-be.
You do not need a signed statement to assure this privacy (for that one who asked). We knew going in to speak with this particular counselor we were assigned to, that there was already a close connection between this student and the counselor. The counselor is the advisor to the Color Guard Team which this student is the Captain of the team and the student is also the student aid to the counseling office. We did ask more then once before proceeding due to the closeness of the relationship between the offending student and my daughters’ counselor if all proceedings were to be held in strictest of confidence. She assured us that any thing that went on her office was confidential.
The offending student is a young lady who for what ever reason decided long ago that the father-to-be really wanted to be with her, not the mother-to-be. It is over a boy she decided to break the law. So when she found out that my daughter was going to home study, she felt it her right to invade my daughter’s privacy and to share this information with others.
It could have been drugs, abuse, neglect, misbehavior, all still very personal information and still all protected by the privacy laws.
I hope this helps.
