Legal
The Unblinking Eye: Be wary of parental demands to view footage of a school bus fight.
Te Utah Court of Appeals
affirmed the trial court’s decision and determined that FERPA’s requirements govern the disclosure under Utah’s open-records law of any records that fall within FER- PA’s reach. Te appellate court then addressed whether the video was an “education record” within the meaning of FERPA. It stated, “A plain reading of FERPA’s statuto- ry language reveals that Congress intended for the definition of edu- cation records to be broad in scope.” As a result, it rejected Bryner’s argument that only those records that are academic in nature are “edu- cation records” under FERPA. Te appellate court found that the
School Surveillance Video: An Educational Record?
WRITTEN BY DAWN BROOKS, ESQ. H
ow should a district respond to a par- ent requesting a video of their child involved in a fight at school, or on the school bus, with other students?
Te Utah Court of Appeals recently ad-
dressed this issue in May of 2015 in Bryner v. Canyons School District—deciding that a vid- eo from a school camera was closed because it was an “education record.” Tis case is distinc- tive as it identifies the tension schools endure when balancing state open-records laws and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Ultimately, the appellate court ruled that the
record could be released if the plaintiff paid the district to electronically redact or blur the faces of the other involved students. Te plaintiff, Roger Bryner, filed a records
request under Utah’s public records law after his son was involved in a fight at the middle school. Te incident was recorded by a surveillance camera located outside the exit to a classroom.
54 School Transportation News • MARCH 2016
School officials denied Bryner’s request for a copy of the recording, stating that the videotape was an “educational record” as defined under FERPA, and prohibited from releasing an un-redacted copy of the tape. Because the video contained the personally identifiable informa- tion of students other than Bryner’s child, the school would only release the video to Bryner if and when it obtained written consent from all of the parents of the other students shown in the video. Te trial court
concluded that because other students were clearly identifiable in the video, Bryner’s records request was subject to FERPA and the district had properly denied Bry- ner’s request to disclose an un-redacted copy of the video.
video contained information directly related to the students involved in the altercation by citing the U.S. Department of Education’s Family Policy Compliance Office’s (FPCO) position that “a parent may only inspect a school videotape showing his or her own child engaged in misbehavior if no other students are pictured.” It also stated that “[o]ther guidance provided by the FPCO suggests that video recordings may constitute education records only for those students who are ‘directly related’ to the focus or subject of the video.” Additionally, it determined that “the students’ images in the vid- eo constitute information identifying
Dawn Brooks, Esq., is the owner and CEO of Gray Ram Tactical, LLC, and a licensed attorney in Missouri specializing in education, governmental and administrative law. Dawn also has a MBA with a concentration in Homeland Security Resource
Allocation. She routinely presents training seminars at state and national conferences. E-mail her at dbrooks@
grayramtactical.com.
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