As parents, we are given the responsibility and right to protect our children’s privacy. Parents retain the right to expect schools to keep students’ records, addresses, and personal information confidential. It is the law. Most administrators, faculty, and staff adhere to the law. Our children’s rights are protected. We feel secure.

It may surprise and shock you to know how unprotected your child can be.
The following is an example of what happened in one school district and how children’s rights were not only violated, the children themselves were put at risk.

In Ventura County, California, a mother of elementary age children was shocked to know that their names, addresses, phone numbers, and any contact information, were taken from student emergency cards and published in a school directory booklet put out by the local PTA. Surprisingly, this is protected under the “Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34 - Education Part 99 – Family Educational Rights & Privacy.”

The booklet also listed the names of siblings and other family members. Added to this information was a complete class room roster, including classroom numbers, and teachers’ names. You could easily find out not only where each child lived but what classroom they are in and their grade level.

Why is this being done? Administrators say this is a “common practice” is being doen as a service for school “involved” parents who want a an easy way to contact students and parents for “study buddy groups,” asking about homework assignments, car pooling, and birthday invitation lists.

In today’s world, where we are more aware of child predators than ever before, this seems unconscionable. If the administration and those parents who see nothing wrong with this practice truly believe that the information never could get into the hands of a child molester, they are either naive or just plain brain-dead.

A child molester needn’t be that shadow-y figure lurking in the mall or other places where children go, the predator can be as close as a family friend or a relative, who happens to get hold of this booklet. Though no one wants to think someone they know is a molester, let alone related to them, reality tells us differently.

For a school district to put all this information into one convenient booklet is tempting fate.
As a mother, I would not want my children on this list and I would certainly demand that the names and addresses of our children not be made public. I would go so far as to retain a lawyer to protect my children.

‘We’re not in Kansas any more, Toto,’ we’re in a world where the ugliness of child molestation is an ever present danger; where, if a stranger even smiles at our children we become wary; where we can’t let down our guard.

I hope this "common practice" doesn't continue and that the administrators in Ventura County School District realize how dangerous this practice is.

There are some who may say I worry too much, that my attitude can keep a child from having a normal, carefree childhood. I don’t think they’re right. You cannot discount danger, anyone who does is a fool and we can’t be foolish with our children’s lives.


Unfortunately, today, a normal carefree childhood comes with a price, and that price is constant vigilance.