Some Surrey parents are enraged after discovering their private information and their children’s school attendance records were publicly posted online.
The absentee records from Frank Hurt Secondary School were posted online in 2014, and remained there for anyone to see until recently. The list included names, phone numbers, and some sensitive family information – like whether or not a student is in foster care.
A former foster parent who had a child at the school is upset with the revelation.
“Being a foster child, it’s a stigma. You know, they don’t even let their friends know, and now it’s public? That’s not right,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified.
Global News approached several parents at the school and all had concerns about the breach in privacy.
“We don’t want our phone numbers to get public,” said one parent.
“I don’t know what to say, that’s not good,” said another.
It was a private investigator searching for a phone number who stumbled over the information and shared it with Global News.
“It can be quite damaging for this type of information to be received by somebody who shouldn’t have it,” said P.I. Dianna Holden.
The School Surrey Board says the public post was due to a clerical error.
“A clerk had placed a file in a folder that was related to the school website and not the folder they intended. It’s a rare occurrence and we will use the information to educate staff and to look at ways we can mitigate against that sort of thing happening again,” the school board’s Doug Strachan said.
While the link has now been disabled, it’s unclear how many people saw the document when it was live.
Comments