Rome City School District v. Grifasi, NY slip op 25525 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Oct. 28, 2005)
A New York state court has found that a school district surveillance tape is not an "educational record" within the meaning of the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and, therefore, is subject to disclosure. Mark Grifasi, a student at Rome Academy in Rome City School District (RCSD), was involved in an altercation that was captured on school videotape. A hearing officer, who stated that he did not view the tape, recommended based on other evidence that Mark be suspended. Mark appealed his suspension to state court and filed a motion for disclosure of the tape. RCSD opposed the motion, arguing that the tape is an educational record within the meaning of FERPA, which the district is prohibited from disclosing. Mark disputed this assertion and noted that in any event the tape already had been disclosed to several entities, including the police. The court concluded that the videotape is not an educational record as defined by FERPA because "education records do not include records maintained by a law enforcement unit of the educational agency or institution that were created by that law enforcement unit for the purpose of law enforcement." FERPA is "intended to protect records relating to an individual student's performance," but, the court asserted, does not "apply to records, such as the videotape in question which was recorded to maintain the physical security and safety of the school building and which does not pertain to the educational performance of the students captured on this tape." Although the federal Family Policy Compliance Office had opined in a letter that a student has no right to inspect a portion of a videotape in which other students appear, the court found that in such a case it must balance the respective rights of the parties and determined that Mark's due process rights outweighed RCSD's interest in protecting any claimed confidentiality. RCSD's concern that it could lose federal funding if it released the tape was without merit, the court determined, because the release would be by way of judicial order rather than voluntary disclosure.
Rome City School District v. Grifasi, NY slip op 25525 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Oct. 28, 2005)
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