By now most of you, my constituents, have heard about the incident between two students at Kennedy High that happened last week. I’ve been receiving quite a bit of feedback about the way the communication was handled, and I want your opinions.
Kennedy High
Most of the feedback I’ve been getting is pretty much summed up as, “we should have been told something was happening and that more details were forthcoming.”
Apparently, the district was waiting for the full details of the case from the district attorney, whether there were charges filed, etc. But I think parents don’t care so much about details like that as much as information that precautions are being taken. In fact, I’ve asked the Communications office to report to Kennedy parents something along these lines:
An incident between two students has happened at school today, and the police are involved. A suspect is in custody, and while we are taking every step to ensure the safety of your children, we are not at liberty at this time to share more details. We believe this is an isolated incident, but our Safety office has been dispatched to provide additional security at the school regardless.
Some of you have even expressed a little frustration about our district notification priorities, even sharing with me that “robocalls” go out on the fly for relatively low-priority things, but that safety notifications are much lower on the priority totem pole.
Keep in mind, however, that we have to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which requires us to keep student information confidential, except from “appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law.).” Further, state law requires us to follow that federal law.
Still, I think that we can let you know about incidents without sharing all the details that would violate a student’s rights to privacy. What do you think?
“No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition and both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.” – JFK
A letter should have gone home with students the next school business day with minimum information–letting the parents know what happened.
When a message does not go home parents think we are hiding something. They need to be able to talk to their kids, if only to tell them to be more watchful for their safety. mts
Obviously discretion is required to ensure the privacy of our students. That being said, the District absolutely should not have restricted the school from sending out a letter similar to the one posted above.
Students were hearing rumors for several days yet parents didn’t hear about it until it hit the news. A robocall or letter would have been much more appropriate.
Delaying the response for something that could have easily been addressed with a generic notice of the incident was unnecessary and diminishes the community’s confidence in DPS.
DPS talks about community involvement yet they consistently keep the community out of the dialog and hogtie their principals. When will they recognize that honest communication is critical?
This is not the first time nor will it be that last time that an “incident” occurs at JFK (or any high school at DPS and it would nice to know how the school can and should communicate with parents.
Here are my concerns and comments:
1. Taken as given: The school should not release Personal Identifying Information (PII). Of course they shouldn’t … it’s the law and for many reasons that law is a very good idea.
2. I found out about this incident as I was walking my dogs in front of the school at 9:30 last night. I saw two news vans outside of the school and that sight triggered a faint memory of a 10 second television item I had heard while making dinner early in the day “…an kidnapping incident at a DPS school…”
The news vans outside of Kennedy + the short news items = That incident happened at Kennedy.
2. I SHOULD NOT hear about an incident at my school (notice I said my school) on the news. I expect to hear from my school. I do not need details, but I would like to know “something happened – the proper officials were involved – here are the immediate steps we are taking (whatever those steps may be).
3. Did the School Board or Kennedy officials talk to the News? (I’m sorry I did not see the local news last night)
If they did talk to the media, they should have
communicated to the parents first.
If they did not talk to the media, they should still talk to parents.
4. A number of years ago there was as bomb scare at Kennedy (it turned out to be nothing). Every teacher knew, but someone decided to not tell the parents. And I am
5. If our school officials stand up at back-to-school nights and graduations and tell parents how happy they are that we are involved in our children education, then respect us enough to communicate with us.
6. If DPS can call me 3x to tell me about the school lunch program and I think they can call me once to tell me about how they are handling “an incident” at the school
How about the school tells us the types of information they will communicate with me and how that communication will happen? Then we will have that information then we can start having a discussion about what we want to know and what we can know.
Thanks for bringing up this issue, Andrea. 🙂