VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Surrey School District is doing damage control, after an embarrassing incident saw the personal information of over 250 students emailed out to parents.
The grades and absentee records of students from Clayton Heights Secondary School were accidentally sent to parents, instead of the intended letter from the district’s superintendent with information on the strike.
Within minutes, school officials sent a follow-up email and asked recipients to delete the original attachment, but the damage was arguably already done. Class percentages, ranging from the high nineties to nine percent in one student’s case, along with their attendance records, were sent out in alphabetized lists.
“The information wasn’t medical or financial, but it would be considered private, and we respect that,” said Doug Strachan, a spokesperson for the Surrey School District.
“It appears at this point to have been human error, just somebody putting on the wrong attachment, but we’ll continue to investigate. We want to make sure we know exactly how it happened and how we can take steps to avoid that happening again,” he said.
BC’s Privacy Commissioner has also been notified.
One parent who saw the list said there’s little the school district can do to rectify the situation.
“It’s out there, everyone sees it, it’s done. An apology can not solve everything,” said Trina Mack.
“It’s a number. It’s a number that goes with people. It’s like their SIN number for school. All that goes from Grade 8 to Grade 12. It’s all there.”
– With files from Tanya Beja
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