Sunday, May 08, 2005

Principal violates federal law by discussing discipline incident

A principal in Georgia not only proved he's a total asshole for suspending a kid for 10 days for answering a phone call from his mom in Iraq, but also violated federal law by discussing the incident with reporters. This federal law prohibits releasing *any* information from the students' records, including information about disciplinary actions, without permission of the student (parents, for minor students) or a court order.

To quote federal regulations regarding what comprises an unlawful disclosure of a disciplinary record:

Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g(a)(5)(A))

Disciplinary action or proceeding means the investigation, adjudication, or imposition of sanctions by an educational agency or institution with respect to an infraction or violation of the internal rules of conduct applicable to students of the agency or institution. Disclosure means to permit access to or the release, transfer, or other communication of personally identifiable information contained in education records to any party, by any means, including oral, written, or electronic means.

I.e., when this principal disclosed information from this child's disciplinary record to the press, he violated federal law.

Not that I expect anybody to ever take him up on it. After all, if the boy's family had the money for a lawyer, his momma wouldn't be in Iraq right now, she'd be at home..

- Badtux the Legal Penguin

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