student privacy

Federal student privacy law has been abused and distorted to deny journalists access to records essential for public safety, a coalition of media and First Amendment organizations told the U.S. Supreme Court Monday, urging justices to accept author Jon Krakauer’s petition in a much-watched freedom-of-information case. Krakauer, the acclaimed author…

A surveillance video that captured an altercation between a high-school student and an adult volunteer is a public record that must be turned over to journalists, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Monday, turning aside the school district’s claim that federal privacy law required keeping the footage confidential. In a 3-0…

Confusing federal privacy laws are regularly misapplied to obstruct journalists’ and parents’ access to essential safety information about public schools, the Brechner Center’s Frank LoMonte writes in an opinion column for Education Week magazine. In the March 16 article — “Student Privacy Laws Have Been Distorted (And That’s a Problem)”…

Newsworthy video from school surveillance cameras can’t be withheld from the public on the grounds of student privacy, a group of open-government groups argues in a brief filed with a Pennsylvania appeals court. The brief, authored by the Brechner Center’s Frank LoMonte and David Jadon, supports television journalists from Harrisburg who used their state’s Right-to-Know-Law to request footage of a school-bus security camera that captured an altercation between a parent and a student.