Fuck you, Mr. Schwarzenegger

Last night I attended an event in Sacramento to honor “the extraordinary achievements of standout public high school seniors from across the state.” We were a group of seniors chosen seemingly arbitrarily from California’s public schools, invited to attend an event to receive a recognition nobody really understood. The event itself was poorly planned (no schedule for the evening was ever published, and we were forced to find our seats by searching the four tables assigned to our county for a name card), disorganized (we were kept waiting at the bottom of an escalator for half an hour while the security team swept for bombs) and excruciatingly awkward for most of the students involved. In the end, though, it was a well-intentioned event earnestly trying to spotlight the success of students across the state.

What was slightly less appreciated was the press release that was published this morning. This release contained the names of the 25 of us chosen for the “All-State Academic Team,” another recognition whose significance is still unclear. Rather problematically, the same press release also contained each student’s:

• Extracurricular activities
• GPA
• SAT Score
• Class rank

This was an extraordinarily stupid decision for a number of reasons. First of all, it opens up criticism of the selection process both on a local level (why wasn’t my daughter, also a member of the Key Club, selected?) and a state one (why is there not a single ACT score posted on the page?). Additionally, it invites comparison between the students selected (an inevitably embarrassing process for at least one of the parties involved).

Perhaps most problematically, it is illegal.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act states that schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student’s education record. There are a number of exceptions to this rule listed, but none give the state the right to release the private academic records of private citizens (and minors!) to the general public. As none of the award recipients were ever asked to sign a waiver giving the state the right to disclose our academic records (indeed, most students were not even aware they were nominated) the press release that the governor’s office issued this morning is, in fact, a violation of our constitutionally-guaranteed right to privacy.

Mr. Kitchens has told me he will express his displeasure to the county supervisors, and I can only assume that at least a few of the other students are at least as outraged as I am to see their personal information posted on the intarwebs by the State of California. Perhaps someone with more free time than me will even bring a lawsuit against them, but the damage has already been done.

I won’t post a link to the press release (or the Governor’s slightly mortifying speech) out of said concern for privacy, but as at least one person in my Mandarin class already discovered the information is there for anyone capable of typing the letters G O O G L E to find.

And all I got in return for the abuse of my rights was a cheap medal and this stupid picture: