Churchill flu outbreak numbers

Well, that might have been the title if Winston Churchill High School administrators complied with the Maryland Public Information Act. But what a great lesson for students to learn about the withholding of public information by public officials! No "sunshine" in Potomac is a better title for this piece.

Churchill Observer: Low attendance gets attention
October 30, 2009 • written by Natalie Geisler, News Editor

...According to Feldman, a specific number of absences will not be released because, according to assistant school administrator Jan Fisher, it is information CHS is “not making public.” Despite the fact that percentages were obtained through the School Health division of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (MCDHHS), assistant principal Leo McDonald, Principal Joan Benz and her administrative secretary Rita DiFato refused to comment on the specific numbers.

According to Chris Cram, operations manager of the MCPS Pffice [sic] of Communications and Family Outrach, the specific number of students that have beem [sic] absent has to be provided by the school’s principal or attendance secretary, both of whom refused to disclose this information, even though the information is public...