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School says police report about pellet gun shooting is protected by FERPA

School says police report about pellet gun shooting is protected by FERPAAfter learning of a fight at an apartment complex involving a pellet gun, The Butler Collegian asked the Butler University Police Department for a copy of the incident report. The police department declined to turn over the police report, citing FERPA. When questioned further, the police… Continue reading School says police report about pellet gun shooting is protected by FERPA

Mapping college newspaper thefts

Newspaper theft is never funny — but sometimes you have to laugh at the ridiculous lengths some people will go to censor the news.

  • There's the Binghamton student who justified trashing 50 copies of The Binghamton Review by saying he had obtained signed permission from students who "donated" their copies to him to trash.
  • There's The Gatepost at Framingham State College, where 1,000 copies were trashed after the paper ran a photo front-page of students at a lacrosse game with their friend's name (a lacrosse player) written on their midriffs.

How college newspapers covered the annual Clery campus safety report

Most college students understand the level of safety on their campus, but sometimes they can get a little too comfortable.A much needed reminder of campus safety comes this week, as this past Monday was the deadline for colleges to release their annual crime report, as required by the Jeanne Clery Act. All colleges that except federal money, which includes almost all public and private colleges that accept federal financial aid, are required to release this report that chronicles the last three years’ worth of serious crime by category. The act is named after a Lehigh University student who was raped and murdered in her dorm room.

School says age and grade level of student who gave birth at school is protected by FERPA

School says age and grade level of student who gave birth at school is protected by FERPAA high school student gave birth in her Wilmington, N.C., school’s bathroom around dismissal time. The school system’s spokeswoman declined to release the student’s age or grade level, citing FERPA. Source: The (Wilmington) Star-News, Baby born in Hoggard High bathroom… Continue reading School says age and grade level of student who gave birth at school is protected by FERPA

TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: You can’t play by the rules — or know when to break them — without a copy of the rulebook

To the list of those routine-but-essential tasks that belong on every to-do list -- see the dentist, change your smoke-alarm batteries, rotate your tires -- add this one: Get a copy of your school or college's rulebook -- and read it.Each fall, returning students are ambushed by policy changes that, with remarkable frequency, tend to get enacted during the summer term when scrutiny by the public is at its lowest.For instance, the University of North Carolina is among the schools that, in compliance with a recent federal mandate, rewrote its disciplinary standards to make it easier to prove a claim of sexual assault.Of far lesser consequence, dorm residents at Northwestern University recently learned that the fee for lost keys will nearly triple, to $200, for a third offense.No matter the stakes, it's important for campus journalists to keep current on rule changes enacted by campus trustees or governing boards -- especially those that impact the student media.