Educational records in the possession of prosecutors during a criminal investigation are not confidential and can be released to the public, a Florida judge has ruled.The ruling, by Judge Marc L.
Tag: FOI
Former Elon student asks N.C. Supreme Court to open police records at private colleges
Nick Ochsner, the former Elon University student journalist who was denied access to records held by the private school’s police department, is taking his case to the state Supreme Court.Ochsner filed a petition Tuesday to have his case against the university and the state attorney general’s office heard by the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Missouri newspaper settles lawsuit with school district after six-month battle for public information
UPDATE 6/15: The Springfield News-Leader settled a suit with the Republic School District on Thursday, ending a dispute over information about another lawsuit, settled in November, involving a student and her family who claimed the middle school did not protect the girl from sexual harassment and rape during school hours.According to the News-Leader, documents reveal the district paid $185,000 -- $122,315 to the girl and her family, and the remaining money toward attorney fees.--------A southwest Missouri newspaper and the Republic School District are working to settle a public records lawsuit and reveal the details of a November settlement over student sexual abuse allegations, the newspaper’s attorney said Wednesday.The Springfield News-Leader filed a public records lawsuit June 4 for information regarding the district’s settlement with the student, particularly the amount the district paid and the minutes from any meeting where the settlement was discussed.The News-Leader’s suit argued the district is required to release the information under the Missouri Sunshine Law.“We believe that the applicable Sunshine Law statute requires disclosures of the information for obvious reasons – the taxpayers have a right to know how the school is conducting its business,” attorney Bryan Wade told The News-Leader.Wade confirmed the district had responded to the suit, and the two entities are negotiating an agreement.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: When the police investigation ends, your investigation is just getting started
Using an under-utilized information source -- the closed files of police investigators -- NBC News has shed new light on what campus police knew in 1998 about now-indicted coach Jerry Sandusky's "private workouts" with young boys in the Penn State locker room.NBC's widely cited reports, accompanied by original police documents posted online, are adding to the public's understanding about whether police responded adequately to the earliest known complaints that Sandusky touched kids inappropriately -- letting him go with the admonition to stop showering with boys, despite a psychologist's warning that the coach's behavior looked like "a typical pedophile 'overture.'"Because institutional memories in newsrooms are short -- and those in student newsrooms especially so -- journalists sometimes forget to follow up on cases that have been closed.
SUNSHINE WEEK 2012: At some university dining halls, eat your hamburgers or watch the money disappear
A visit to the dining hall is a daily part of the college experience for most freshmen. Parents buy a meal plan at the start of each term with the idea that it’s a down payment on food for their eager young scholar.
SUNSHINE WEEK 2012: Public figures, private information? College athletic departments selectively cry “student privacy” when journalists come knocking.
When an athlete disappears from a major-college sports team, the back-story is a matter of intense public interest and speculation.
Montana court is another voice in the growing chorus: FERPA doesn’t mean what schools say it does
A well-known college employee suddenly disappears from campus under a cloud of misconduct rumors. When the news media starts asking questions, the college throws up a steel curtain of secrecy, claiming "student confidentiality."Journalists have become familiar with this bureaucratic dodge, and have come to regard cries of "FERPA" -- the federal student privacy law -- as skeptically as those of, "Wolf!"Now, yet another state court -- this time in Montana -- has agreed with the news media that Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) does not override a state university's duty to produce open records, if the records are primarily about the conduct of an employee and not primarily about students.In a March 1 ruling, Bozeman Daily Chronicle v.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Don’t take “no” for a public-records answer — and don’t take “copyright,” either
On occasion, people in positions of public authority know "just enough law to be dangerous" -- not enough to actually get the answer right, but enough to convince themselves that they have, because the answer has lots of authoritative-sounding words in it.This is the story of one such occasion.Recently, the SPLC attorney hotline received what started out as an unremarkable call from a college journalist whose request to a government agency for public records was denied.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Hang on tightly to your FOI access — the legislature is back in session
If legislative sponsors in New York get their way, it soon will be unlawful for college athletic departments to provide a team roster to The Washington Post, ESPN or any other national news organization.It sounds crazy, but it's the result of a pair of privacy-on-steroids bills, S2357 and A8474, filed last year in the New York legislature and awaiting consideration this session.These measures -- which began as limited and well-intentioned efforts to protect student confidentiality and morphed during committee hearings into something much more -- are emblematic of the mischief that sweeps the country this time of year, when state legislatures typically come back into session.A survey by American Journalism Review found that the number of reporters assigned to cover state capitols declined 32 percent between 2003 and 2009.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: N.C. court ruling offers new leverage to obtain private colleges’ police records
Student journalists at private colleges may have a stronger argument for access to previously off-limits police reports from campus law enforcement, as a result of a recent North Carolina Supreme Court ruling.The case, State v.