Around 11:30 on Monday morning, my phone buzzed with an alert from Rogers-Herr Middle School indicating it was a “safety update.”
Soon, I read the message from RHMS Principal Dr. Tawauna Stewart, explaining that a student had posed with a weapon for an image shared on social media. No one hurt, and the photo was taken down. Dr. Stewart also indicated that education privacy laws prevented her from revealing consequences for the student in question.
I’m not sure that’s true. I think privacy laws prevent her from identifying the student. They probably make it illegal for her to share the child’s academic records. But I don’t think those laws forbid a principal (or the Durham Public Schools district) to let the community know what consequences were applied.
Did the student get detention? Are they at least getting some help to deal with whatever motivated their behavior? I can’t see the harm in sharing that kind of information with families like mine that got a scare to start off the school week.
Author: Wes Platt
Lead storyteller. Game designer and journalist. Recovering Floridian. Email: southpointaccessnews@gmail.com.
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