In what appears to be an utterly brazen attempt to arouse suspicion and evoke hostility toward a public records requester—rather than respond to his request according to law—the Hamilton County Tennessee School District alerted parents to a purported threat to their personal privacy posed by the request. A subsequent alert to parents confirmed that the school system never had any intention of honoring the request.
As Tennessee Coalition for Open Government executive director, Deborah Fisher, tweeted:
"Real transparency would be Hamilton County School District explaining why it HASN'T explained to parents how they can opt-out of 'school directory' information releases—and providing parents a complete list of organizations they gave this information to last year—instead of saying they'd like state law changed to put the school district in charge of deciding which organizations should get the information. Sounds to me like they were keeping parents in the dark about their rights and creating a controversy to hide their mistakes?"
WRCB-TV reports:
"Hamilton County school parents were thrown for a loop Thursday evening as they learned their information and their children's information could be released.
"A man with 'Friends of Hamilton' says he wanted to help the community connect and filed an open records request with the school system.
"However, at around 10:00 p.m. Channel 3 learned the request had been rescinded, citing the response and concerns raised.
"Parents were concerned because 'Friends with Hamilton' requested parents' or guardians' first and last names, phone numbers, email addresses and the school and grade level of which their children are enrolled.
"Hamilton County School families received an email Thursday afternoon, saying an open records request had been filed and a man named Brendan Jennings, who was seeking the information.
"'Families of Hamilton County Schools,
'This message serves as notice of an open records request involving you and your child's information. Per board policy, we wanted to give you advanced notice of this request prior to your information being shared next week. We are required by law to fulfill this request.
'The requestor is Brendan Jennings with Friends of Hamilton. Mr. Jennings can be reached at 423-304-4633 or bdjennings55@gmail.com. He did not identify his purpose in seeking the following information for all current HCS families:
• Parent/Guardian First Name
• Parent/Guardian Last Name
• Parent/Guardian Address
• Parent/Guardian Phone
• Parent/Guardian Email
• School at which children are enrolled
• Grade level of enrolled children
Any other information such as social security numbers or date of birth are protected by FERPA and will not be shared.'
"Parents had questions because the purpose in seeking the information was not given.
"The Hamilton County School system sent a statement saying they consider the request to be an invasion of privacy to students and parents.
'Based on the guidance of our board attorney and in an effort to be transparent, Hamilton County Schools advised its community in an email earlier today that a private citizen has requested certain contact information pertaining to our students and families. Under Tennessee's Public Records Act, much of this information, including the names and addresses of students, are available to the public. Ordinarily, this information is used to honor graduates, scholars, and athletes.
'In this case, however, the citizen seeks information of all 45,000 plus students and parents in our district. The request encompasses home addresses, phone numbers, emails, and additional information. We consider this request to be an invasion of the privacy of our students and parents.
'While the Board is bound by the law, we respect the privacy of our students and their families. We understand that families are considering what legal action they can take to block this request, and the Board stands ready to support and partner with them however we can.
'No information will be shared with the requestor unless and until we have exhausted all legal options. We will provide an update to our families on this matter once we have satisfactorily resolved the issue."
"Jennings said he will change the way he gets information. He says based on the response received, the open records request is being pulled.
'On Thursday afternoon, Hamilton County Schools notified parents of an open records request for publicly accessible information. While we were aware that such a notification would be sent to parents, we were not notified in advance about the specific timing of that notification. We apologize for not being quite prepared with a ready response for the deluge that followed.
'We have heard from many parents and listened to their concerns. Our intent in no way was to invade anyone's privacy, but rather to help foster closer communications among parents while increasing transparency in the classroom. Sort of an electronic PTA or NextDoor for parents.
'The past year has been a challenging one for parents, including many in our group. We have previously been involved in political campaigns, including the statewide effort to end forced annexation in Tennessee, and we wanted to help create a more advantageous playing field for parents in presenting their concerns to school boards and school administrators.
'Based on the response we received, we are hereby rescinding the open records request. We will continue to work with other like-minded groups to help parents get their voices heard at school boards and help make sure curricula and teaching methods more appropriately reflect what parents want in their schools.'"
