Student Debtors Posted in Public Place - Again

Once again we see a MCPS school posting the names of students who owe fees in a public place. This time on the Internet.

Articles have been written documenting that names of student debtors are posted and the Whitman High School school news program even did a segment that included video of the lists on the wall at Whitman High School. Walter Johnson High School has posted student identification numbers on their website to identify student debtors.

And then there was this incident reported on by The Examiner.

In December 2008, Delegate Brian Feldman questioned Board of Education member Shirley Brandman about the practice of listing the names or id numbers of student debtors in a public place. Board member Brandman feigned no knowledge of this practice, even though the practice of posting lists of student debtors was occurring at the school her children attended. The video of her response is here at minute 2:12.                                       

And so it continues. Again we see a public listing of students who owe MCPS fees. See screen image at left.

The MCPS Board of Education and MCPS Superintendent have failed to establish a firm policy against the practice of posting student debtor names, and have failed to respect the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

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The Parents' Coalition has blocked out the names of the students on this list and we aren't providing a link to this blog. We expect that the listing of these student's names will be removed from the Internet within the next 24 hours, hopefully sooner. 


Thanks to the county parent that forwarded us this information. Maybe someday the MCPS Superintendent and Board of Education will resolve to protect the privacy rights of students.


UPDATE 3/26/10: Student Debtors Removed from Internet