Furious parents demand leaders from the Poway School Board district resign immediately. The demands came during an emergency meeting Wednesday that discussed the recent data breach that wrongfully released the personal information of more than 36,000 students in the district.
Gabby Dow is part of the school district’s technology committee and has been struggling to have transparent communication with the district for more than a year. She had recently been asking for information regarding school programs and says the school board was not cooperating.
She sent the board a formal request and also asked for any email dating back to 2014 that included her name in it. “Instead of my name being on an email,” said Dow, “it was a database on a spreadsheet of all parents and all students in the community."
The spreadsheet included the information of more than 36,000 students as well as the names and addresses of 70,000 parents.
Although there were no social security numbers, private information like the occupation of parents, phone numbers as well children’s nicknames were listed.
Dow immediately handed over the information to the San Diego District Attorney’s office.
When asked about the leak, the school board responded by saying they had recently turned over any public record requests to their attorneys. This was a temporary solution due to the number of requests and lack of staffing, they say.
Parents say their demands are about accountability. Chris and Kim Garnier attended the meeting.
Chris spoke Wednesday in front of the board. “President Michelle O’Connor-Radcliff has lost institutional control," said Garnier. “I call for you, board, to remove her immediately."
Jeff Riley, another concerned parent, also spoke. He explained leadership changes need to take place to protect the children. "If we were in the private sector, they would all be fired," said Riley.
After listening to the comments from concerned parents, the school board held a closed meeting. Board members told 10News they are currently putting together a detailed plan to inform parents how the district will move forward with the breach.
