Missouri school district accused of negligence after children’s records released
KEARNEY, Mo. (KCTV) - A Missouri school district has been accused of negligence after a parent claimed their children’s personal information was released to someone who never should have had it.
Clay County, Missouri, Circuit Court records filed earlier in June have revealed that the Kearney School District has been served with a lawsuit which accuses staff of releasing the personal information of children to a representative who did not belong to their parents.
A petition filed on June 2 by the counsel of Joseph Williams seeks damages for a May 31, 2023, incident in which the District allegedly released the confidential records of his children, which included information pertaining to Williams, to a representative of a third party in an unrelated civil suit.
The suit claims a subpoena served to the district clearly listed the parties of a suit that were not the parents - biological or legal - of the children in question. The subpoena was not requested by a law enforcement agency or any agency of the like, but by the private counsel of individuals who had no right to the records.
Williams said he was never notified by the district of the subpoena or that his children’s information was handed out. Instead, he claimed to have found out through the Missouri Casenet system before he requested representation of his own.
Williams further claimed that those who requested the information from the district used it to his employer, which may have negatively impacted his job.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which was signed into law in 1974, bars educational institutions from responding to subpoenas without notifying the child’s parents or the child in question.
However, a June 1, 2023, email Williams claimed to have from the District itted that the lack of notification in his case was an oversight. The suit now claims the district acted negligently. It seeks legal fees and emotional damages as well as injunctive relief in the form of training for all custodians of records for the district.
Court documents indicated that a summons was issued to the Kearney School District on Wednesday, June 11, to make a plea in the suit.
KCTV5 News has reached out to the Kearney School District and continues to await a response; however, as a rule, district officials said they do not tend to comment on pending litigation. No further information has been released.
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