Once again, the New York City Department of Education is treating student confidential records as if they are garbage.

Literally.

On July 1, 2004, thousands of condfidential records were found strewn around the street outside of a soho school.

In June, 2002, boxes with student records were found sitting outside of Martin Luther King Jr. High School at 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue waiting for the sanitiation trucks. The confidential information was clearly visible to all who picked through the boxes, and the E-Accountability Foundation was told that some of the records were examined, and they seemed to be special education students. We were also told that after the media exposed the trashed documents, Superintendent Welton Sawyer took the records back into the building where his office was (he has moved to Topeka Kansas) and paid a high school student to shred them.

On January 30, 2003, a parent of a student at Stuyvesant High School was given, by Mr. Jay Biegelson while at a meeting with him and the Principal, Stan Teitel, 4 pages of confidential and personal information about all of the students who were skipping classes at the school, with their home telephone numbers, addresses, parents' home and work numbers, school IDs, etc.

'PUBLIC' FOOLS
By CARL CAMPANILE, NY POST, July 2, 2004

July 2, 2004 -- Thousands of confidential student records containing home addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers were found on a sidewalk yesterday outside a SoHo high school - thanks to careless educrats ignoring privacy concerns in the age of identify theft and terrorism.
The transcripts and other student papers from Chelsea Vocational HS were placed in unsecured, see-through plastic bags and loose boxes for the Sanitation Department to pick up.

A few of the bags were ripped open and hundreds of the records were strewn on the ground amid old books, computers and other debris on Dominick Street - between Sixth Avenue and Varick Street near the Holland Tunnel entrance.

Parents and students were horrified by the invasion of privacy.

"Oh, my God. I'm shocked by the neglect," said Geraldina Andina, whose son, Dennis, is entering 11th grade at Chelsea in the fall. "If records are found in the wrong hands, it could lead to something very bad."

"I don't know how someone in charge of our youths could do such a thing."

Andina said that, previously, when her son complained about conditions at Chelsea, she would give school officials the benefit of the doubt.

But not anymore. "I have less trust and less confidence in sending my son to this school," Andina said.

Dennis, 16, agreed. "That's irresponsible," he said. "Somebody could use my name and get me in trouble with the Police Department."

Angry mom Lisetta Baerga, whose 17-year-old son, James, attends Chelsea, blasted school officials for carelessness and breaching family privacy.

"Someone else could use my son's Social Security number. This shouldn't ever happen," Baerga said. "They're just being lazy."

The office of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein flunked Chelsea staffers for violating Department of Education rules requiring that confidential student records be safeguarded or shredded.

"This should not have happened," said department spokeswoman Michele McManus. "We are investigating why this happened."

People who work near Chelsea gave the school an F for trash management.

"Wow! That's unprofessional and careless," said Calvin Fields, who noted he was recently pickpocketed and had to apply for a new Social Security number and credit cards to prevent identity theft.

Eli Lugo shook his head. "This personal information could get into the hands of someone evil," he said.

ED BOARD PROBES DUMPING OF HS' PRIVATE FILES
New York Daily News; New York, N.Y.; Jun 30, 2002; TRACY CONNOR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER;

Abstract:
Boxes of files that included student Social Security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, grades and disciplinary and medical records were left overnight Friday on W. 65th St. near Amsterdam Ave.

"I think it's appalling," said Trinal Branford, the mother of a 10th-grader whose file was discarded. "I was very upset her Social Security was sprawled across the sidewalk. And I want to know why they're throwing out my child's files in the first place."

The Board of Education has launched an investigation to determine who dumped thousands of confidential student documents on the sidewalk in front of Manhattan's Martin Luther King Jr. High School - in apparent violation of federal regulations.
Boxes of files that included student Social Security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, grades and disciplinary and medical records were left overnight Friday on W. 65th St. near Amsterdam Ave.
"Obviously, it's a distressing lack of judgment on the part of whoever threw it out," board spokesman Kevin Ortiz said last night. "It's something we are taking extremely seriously."
'It's appalling'
Federal authorities require schools to protect the personal information of their students and to destroy files such as the ones left on the street.
"I think it's appalling," said Trinal Branford, the mother of a 10th-grader whose file was discarded. "I was very upset her Social Security was sprawled across the sidewalk. And I want to know why they're throwing out my child's files in the first place."
After the Board of Education was alerted, school officials were dispatched to the high school yesterday - but the Sanitation Department had already removed the pile.
"We're not sure when it was put out, or who put it out," Ortiz said, noting there are several high schools and administrative offices in the area.
He said the high school superintendent plans to meet with district custodians to find out who authorized the disposal.