Ithaca Public Schools has denied a request by The Morning Sun for more information about an incident involving reports of weapons found at the district’s North Elementary School.
A Freedom of Information Act request filed by the newspaper on Wednesday asked for any and all notes, either handwritten or electronic including emails, and videos, photos, reports and all other information related to an incident on May 2 at North Elementary School in Ithaca.
On May 2, students at the school reported to staff that they witnessed seeing two items that looked like weapons in the possession of another student, said school district superintendent Charmian Fletcher in a statement on Tuesday.
In a response letter from Fletcher on Thursday, the district cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in its determination to deny the request.
FERPA protects the confidentiality of student educational records and limits their disclosure, while guaranteeing students’ rights to access their records.
“(FERPA) prohibits the disclosure of personally identifiable student information,” the letter stated.
The law protects educational record information such as a student’s name, the name of a student’s family members, date and place of birth, and any information whether alone or in combination that can link to a specific student that would allow a reasonable person in the school community who does not have personal knowledge of the circumstances to identify the student with reasonable certainty.
However, information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses, photographs, grade level and date and place of birth are not considered educational records.
This means these types of information are not protected by FERPA from disclosure.
“There might be other laws that prohibit release, but the school cannot rely upon FERPA to justify withholding,” the Society of Professional Journalists website states.
In addition, the district cited Section 13(2) of FOIA, which states that a “public body shall exempt from disclosure information that, if released, would prevent the public body from complying with” FERPA.
The Morning Sun has also filed a FOIA request with the Gratiot County Sheriff’s Office for the police report on the incident.