OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – A former teacher and member of Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE) tells EAGnews that the Oklahoma City Public Schools are telling teachers to post student documentation on Google Docs.

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Jenni White says for years now, ROPE has been warning parents that not only are public schools not the place to expect student privacy to be considered sacred, but that public schools are now sharing student data publicly in some cases.

White says there is an unnamed “whistleblower” within the Oklahoma Public Schools who wants to call attention to the fact  the schools are requiring teachers to upload personal student data information onto Google Docs so that teachers can share and compare student information.  Not that that is illegal. But it can compromise  and has compromised the privacy of student data if it’s mishandled.

White says posting this information has the advantage of teachers being able to share information. “If you post to Google Docs, you can legitimately put four or five other teachers in a pod on the same Google Docs. And they can look at each other’s data and they can look at each others’ kids. There may be some kind of limited use for that. But apparently it also [enables] administrators to keep tabs on them,” she said.

She said this “whistleblower” was perusing Google Docs and “bumped into” a page being used by a group of Oklahoma school teachers. “And they had all of the documentation from their last year out open on Google Docs. And it included names, addresses, student ID numbers, phone numbers, grades—everything.”

White is concerned that private student information could be accessed by virtually anyone. She says last year, when teachers posted information to Google Docs, they were not using the correct settings and instead of the information being shared among themselves, anyone was able to access the information.

“Apparently if you use the wrong setting, anything you publish to Google Docs goes live on the web,” White said.

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She said the teachers posting the information did not pay attention to the settings and the student information was available for anyone to see for more than a year.

She says the “whistleblower,” who is herself a teacher, refuses to post the information.

“It’s creeping this teacher out. And right now [school administrators] have her on a “plan of improvement” because she said she wouldn’t put her kids’ information out on Google Docs. So they’re trying to get rid of her.”

White was instrumental in helping draft state legislation, HB 1989, that prohibits release of student data to organizations outside the state of Oklahoma without written consent of students’ parents or guardians and helps guard student privacy in general. That bill passed and was signed by the governor in 2013.

White says those teachers who posted that information without the proper settings were in violation of that law, although she’s sure it wasn’t an intentional violation. She says when they were informed the settings were quietly and quickly changed so that the information is no longer publicly accessible.

In short, White tells EAG, “We just don’t want schools using Google Docs. I mean, it’s not safe. And this is an excellent way to show it.”

White says she has published this information on her blog so that parents can see what was happening to their kids’ data. She is telling parents to find out if their child’s teacher is storing their child’s data on Google Docs and, if so, tell them to remove the data immediately. She says posting such information is also in violation of Oklahoma’s new Parental Rights law (HB 1384).

ROPE’s mission is to educate “tax-paying citizens and parent stakeholders on the ways in which the methods and philosophies used in public education today affect them.”  In addition to student data privacy, the organization was involved in getting Common Core repealed in Oklahoma.  In June last year, Gov. Mary Fallin signed House Bill 3399 which replaced the Common Core State Standards in English and math. For more information, go to http://www.restoreokpubliceducation.com.