Student Privacy in Schools:  A Success Story

by Sally Milbury-Steen

It is not often that peacemakers can point to a quantifiable success, let alone one that only took four months and two weeks from start to finish to achieve. But, it is true that just such a victory has happened in the Red Clay Consolidated School District in New Castle County, Delaware! This miracle came together because of the actions of three different parties: Pat Elder, co-founder of the DC Antiwar Network (DAWN) and a member of the Steering Committee of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY); the Counter-Recruitment Sub-Unit of the September 11^th Coalition for Just and Peaceful Initiatives, a project of Pacem in Terris, under the leadership of June Eisley; and the Board of Education and the Administration of the Red Clay Consolidated School District, especially Dr. Mervin B. Daugherty, Assistant Superintendent for Academics.

In February Pat Elder brought to our attention that the Red Clay Consolidated School District did not have a policy in place to protect the privacy of students who take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Although the military promotes the ASVAB as a voluntary “Career Exploration Program” administered to juniors and seniors, the U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s School Recruiting Program Handbook says the primary purpose of the ASVAB is to provide military recruiters “with a source of leads of high school juniors and seniors qualified through the ASVAB for enlistment into the Active Army and Army Reserve.” Unless a school district takes measures to protect student privacy, the data from the ASVAB is automatically forwarded to military recruiting services. The only way to prevent this, is for a school district to select Option 8 for the administration of the ASVAB which does not permit the results to be released to military recruiters unless a student and his/her parents consent to it.

Pat Elder had done considerable research and discovered that unless a school district selects Option 8 for the administration of the ASVAB, the privacy rights of students are not protected and the school district may be in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as well as Delaware law regarding student privacy. Pat drafted a model letter for us which gave all of the proper legal citations and official web addresses for the

documents and laws mentioned above.

On February 7, June Eisley and I, incorporated his work into a letter that we sent to Dr. Robert J. Andrzejewski,, Superintendent of the Red Clay Consolidated School District, and to Mr. Irwin J. Becnel, Jr., President of the Board of Education, conveying our concerns about student privacy. On April 28 President Becnel sent us a letter informing us that in response to our letter, the Red Clay Board of Education had discussed our privacy concerns about the ASVAB with the attorney for the district and with the administration and that they hoped to have a position finalized by the Board by the end of May.

On May 15 we responded to his letter with gratitude for the attention which they were giving to our concerns and attached to the letter several articles that indicated how important it is to select Option 8. We had heard privately from a member of Pacem in Terris who serves on the Board of Education that the factor that was complicating the development of a policy was that parents needed to sign an “Opt-Out” form in order to protect their sons and daughters from the No Child Left Behind Act which requires schools to give military recruiters private information about students, while a form for the ASVAB would need to be an “Opt-In” one, permitting private information to be released.

On June 20 we received a letter from Dr. Mervin Daugherty, the Assistant Superintendent for Academics, which included the forms that they have developed to address our concerns. The Red Clay Consolidated School District now has in place an opt-in letter for parents/guardians to sign that will release the ASVAB data to military recruiters, as well as two opt-out forms for the No Child Left Behind Act. One form lets parents and guardians opt out of having information about their child sent to military recruiters and the other form allows parents and guardians to opt out of having information provided to colleges and higher education recruiters, which is also mandated by NCLB. The final attachment was the student data form that parents/guardian fill out each school year. On page 2 it has the opt-out information separated into two categories for the military and for college recruiters.

Although the forms looked excellent to us and to Pat Elder, a question still remained about whether or not Option 8 had actually been selected. On July 29 we sent back a letter thanking Dr. Daugherty for the fine forms that the Red Clay Consolidated District had developed, but asking for exact clarification about which ASVAB option the district had selected. Dr. Daugherty called me and e-mailed me to assure me that they had indeed selected Option 8 and that he would be doing a training workshop on August 18 for guidance counselors in the district explaining the new forms to them and how they are to be used. CONGRATULATIONS, RED CLAY!

We have sent notes to Dr. Daugherty, President Becnel, and Superintendent Andrzejewski not only thanking and congratulating them, but also telling them that we would like to see their forms adopted by the State Board of Education for use in all of Delaware’s high school.

If you are interested in approaching your local school district about student privacy concerns in regards to the ASVAB and the No Child Left Behind Act, or if you just want to see the forms that the Red Clay Consolidated School District has developed, please call the Pacem in Terris office at 302-656-2721. Also, whenever you are feeling down and think that peacemaking is too long haul for you, please re-read this article.

Sally Milbury-Steen is the Executive Director of Delaware Pacem in Terris. She would personally like to thank Pat Elder, June Eisley, Jack Buckley, President Becnel, and Dr. Daugherty for making this victory for students possible.