The Privacy Act & Vindictive Students

Chedva
Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:17:33 +0000

THIS IS ALSO NOT LEGAL ADVICE. SUCH ADVICE DEPENDS ON THE FACTS OF A PARTICULAR CASE AS WELL AS THE STATE IN WHICH THE ACTIONS OCCUR.

The privacy laws governing schools records cover only specific individuals in their official capacity, such as guidance counselors, principals, and potentially teachers. They do not cover other students, parents, or other people that may know things about you (like Facebook buddies). They are free to say anything they want about you to whomever they’d like, assuming that such facts are true. (Opinions about you, like “He’s a freak”, are absolutely protected from lawsuits.) And even the privacy laws governing school records have a number of exceptions under which the records can be revealed.

You know that the Common App asks about disciplinary actions taken against the student. Some have said that this is an invasion of privacy. However, schools can easily require an applicant to waive that privacy right as a condition of accepting the application, so the GCs will be free to respond truthfully. My guess is that this waiver will be instituted soon. There already is a partial waiver - colleges require your transcripts, which are protected by privacy laws. It’s not too much of a leap to include disciplinary records in that waiver.

Bottom line - if you think “privacy laws” will protect you, you’re most likely wrong.