Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in California
Disclosure of student email a violation of FERPA and privacy law?
I am a student at a private US university and would like to know if my email is
protected by Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or any
California privacy laws. One of my classmates broke the school honor code by
lying to a professor. He later confessed, but still had a disciplinary hearing.
The guilty student's email correspondance that was brought out as ''evidence''
included email between him and I. (I was the one who encouraged him to
confess.) I later found out that the board reviewed all my email.
Correspondance between other students (apart from the guilty one), people
outside of school and I was also shared with the disciplinary board. All of my
correspondance was done on a University email system. I was not accused of
anything.
The disciplinary board consisted of school officials and two (non-
employee) students. I think school officials can do as they please with my
email, but I am wondering whether the law, along with my privacy, was
violated when school officials shared my email (with full identifying
information) with the two students on the disciplinary board. This was done
without my permission. I was not notified before or after the disclosure.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Disclosure of student email a violation of FERPA and privacy law?
Go to the head of the class (and to law school) for your diligent research. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that FERPA does not authorize private lawsuits against public educational institutions, Gonzaga University v. Doe, (No. 01-679) 536 U.S. ___, 122 S.Ct. 2268, 2002 US LEXIS 4649, 70 U.S.L.W. 4577 (2002).
I have the following observations:
1. Have you looked up ECPA (the Electronic Communications Privacy Act)? Don't be so sure that they had any right to look at your e-mail.
2. What are your damages?
3. Remember that many civil rights are only guaranteed by law as against a governmental entity. Private colleges do not necessarily have to give you very much due process of law, if any, nor are they prohibited from unreasonable searches and seizures (at least not by the 4th Amendment). As another example, Gonzaga v. Doe was a civil rights lawsuit under 42 USC 1983, someone suing a private university would have (at best) an argument that the FERPA violation constituted a breach of contract, or a common law invasion of privacy.
4. Think of what the possible collateral consequences might be of getting in a legal cat fight with the University.
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