What would you do?
Dec 5th, 2008 by Cathy Jo Nelson
This week I have had an interesting exchange in emails with a person I do not know regarding information about a student at my school. On the surface it seems harmless. Names and other identifiers are removed to protect some, but basically it went like this:
4:01PM
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008
Ms. Nelson,
I am a graduate assistant with the University of XX and am in Myrtle Beach for the next couple of days. I tried to access the Conway Middle School athletic webiste and it required a password and user ID. There was no method of setting up a user ID and password.If the site is not for public use, I would like to find out if a kid named XXXXX XXXXX is playing on the CMS team. He was at our camp in Columbia and was rated as one of the top 5 players in the state. We like to keep an eye on these kids and I see they have a game tommorrow night but I am not sure is he is on the middle school or JV team.
Thx,
XXXXXX
The request seems harmless enough, but I wasn’t comfortable with it for several reasons:
- The name on the email account in no way seemed to match the signed name at the end. There was no confusing the two (the account name and the signature—the account was a typical “first letter last name” style, but the person writing signed with their first name and last, and these did not even remotely match.
- Reason 2 – The website in question does have a place to log in, but guests can see content intended for guests without logging in. The impression I was initially given was that no content was visible on the page in question. It was—I checked.
- I had no way to verify who this person was, or whether or not the student in question was familiar with him.
- There were typos, and I can excuse typos in an email b/c I am notorious for them myself, but coupled with the other concerns I just did not feel comfortable providing the information.
My response to the request went like this:
Please call the school office to gain information about our basketball team. I am sorry if I am coming across as protective, but I have no way to know who is inquiring here about a possible student at CMS. I am able to access our school website without logging in, which makes me wonder if you are looking at the correct site–we recently transitioned to a new server for our school site. It does not require a password. I would also recommend you contact Conway Area Schools Athletic director Chuck Jordan to make inquiries about area athletes. I hope the redirect to get answers will gain you the information you wish to have. Please understand my stance here as CMS webmaster.
cm.horrycountyschools.net
Cathy Nelson, Teacher Librarian, NBCT
Conway Middle School – Horry County Schools
XXX-XXX-XXXX
Now, mind you, we do typically publish the names of our teams when they are provided by coaches, but we are careful not to use last names, and we do not match names with student pictures unless specific permission has been granted by parents—in writing. At the time of this email neither basketball coach had provided the information regarding teams. I thought I was giving a pretty good response and at the same time possibly getting the person contacts for getting the requested information. Apparently though, I struck a nerve, for look at the response I got back.
9:03 AM
Wednesday, Dec.3
Cathy,
Thanks,
I was able through our records at the University of XXXXXX to find out that the boys father is XXXX XXXXXX who owns several businesses and is a local elected official and his mother is a physician. I spoke to his father and he is playing at CMS.
Just a note: Finding out is a kid is on a basketball team could not possibly do any harm in any way. Most web sites have the players listed on the site.
You can access the CMS site but you cant get the list of players on the teams. I was told that this was available last year but now it simply has the schedules.
I was at the correct site as I called the School District first and they realized that the teams couldnt be accessed. That is why they sent me to you.
To get something useful out of this, realize that the website should allow parents and friends of the players to access the players names as well as school officials and teachers,which they cant do now.
Thanks again.
XXXX XXXXXX
Now why do I feel my ire rising? Am I reading too much into his message here? Here are the issues I have now:
- If access to records such as this were available, why bother with a response? After all the person even says he contacted the parents to get the desired information.
- If the person new the name of the student, and were web savvy, couldn’t they use good searching skills to get information about the student’s parents?
- And last, my skills at maintaining the pages seem to me to be under attack
Okay, yes, now I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill, because he did indicate that he contacted the parents, which should have allayed my fears initially. I did reply back that team information as appropriate to our school web guidelines would be posted on the site when coaches provided that information. I also thanked him for interest and showing me how we as a school may improve our school presence. But I am still ticked for the perceived ‘attack” and for taking it personal.
I guess I will from now on put a disclaimer on pages indicating information is posted when provided to the webmaster, but that would need to be on all pages. Yuck. Way more work than the page needs to be maintained, ESPECIALLY when most teachers can access and edit their own sites.
So …what would you have done?
Attribution:
www.flickr.com/photos/25419820@N00/1866330344
www.flickr.com/photos/29096601@N00/1291097530
Hi Cathy,
This is not a problem I would attempt to solve or make policy on. What information is displayed on the web about individual students should be board policy – not procedures set by individuals or even individual buildings.
I would have directed the email to my building principal without replying.
All the best,
Doug
As always excellent advice Doug! We do have a district policy regarding names, etc. I did forward to my building principal, but my patience as you can see did not last. Sigh. My princ said it sort of took care of itself, which it did–the info was found without my help. The info we publish about students is in alignment with district policy thank goodness.
Our district has a policy on what can/cannot be published on the web – even if there is permission from parent, we cannot give full names & photos, such as with a team roster. Granted, this information is usually published in the newspaper, but we/I will not post that information on the school website.
In the situation you gave, I would have “passed the buck” by replying to the sender that I am forwarding his request to our school’s athletic director as I do not have that information available. I would have cc’d the athletic director and considered the matter closed. Maybe not the best approach, but I don’t provide information about students to anyone, it’s not my job, nor would I feel comfortable giving out information about my students.
Cathy,
I agree with Doug. This decision goes directly to the principal who should indicate to the requester that school board policy does not allow student names to be matched to pictures within a school’s website. We webmasters in HCS even signed an agreement that we would not match student names with pictures for security reasons. Don’t take this personally. Just follow the agreement you signed back in August.
Keep on keepin on!
Best,
Frank
Cathy,
I think you handled the situation appropriately and can understand why you feel you were under attack. You should not feel that you have to add a disclaimer to your site because of this individual.
Thank you for sharing your experience – it is not something I would have been prepared for.
Fran
Heather and Frank,
I think my problem is pride–I let the “implied” insinuation that the page was being ill-maintained prod me into a response. Yes my first instinct I did act on–I sent it to the principal. But the more I stewed on it, the more I became angered. Knee-jerk reactions are usually regrettable, and admittedly I’ve had my fair share. The first step toward dealing with a problem is admitting you have one. So hopefully I’m on the road to recovery–pride is a biggie though. Frank, Yes I realize I must follow the policies that I signed to follow. I even called Betty O. to vent and get reassurance that I was indeed adhering to the policy. I could be wrong too, but I don’t believe one wit that anyone at the d.o. talked to him about the page. Also, when people disagree, it can NEVER be resolved in an email. Do you think I should have called my student’s parents? I shocked that an apparently college educated person who works with youth would assume a school would just give out information like that too.
Fran,
Thanks for making me feel like I maybe responded the way you would have. Nope–no disclaimers are called for. Next time–just let the principal handle it.
Thanks all.
Cathy –
I would have been suspicious of that first e-mail myself. As your picture said, people lie on the Internet. If this person had a personal contact with the family, why didn’t he contact them first when he wasn’t able to locate the child on the school web site instead of you? It definitely sounded fishy and you were right to be reluctant in providing the information.
I probably would have done as Doug suggested and sent the request on to the principal. That’s why they get paid the big bucks!
Mary