CDR: Ruling Says Parents Have Right to See List of Sites Students Visit

[An Metet]

By CARL S. KAPLAN

In an opinion sure to heighten the tension between some parents and school systems over the Internet's role in publicly financed education, a New Hampshire judge has decided that a parent is entitled to see a list of the Internet sites or addresses visited by computer users at local schools.

Unless overturned on appeal, the ruling by Judge Gillian L. Abramson of Rockingham Country Superior Court means that James M. Knight of Exeter, N.H., who brought the lawsuit last summer, may review a copy of the "Internet history log" files from computers maintained by two local school districts. The computer disk files contain a record of Internet sites visited by computer users -- students, staff, faculty -- within the Exeter Region Cooperative School District and the Exeter School District.

Significantly, in an attempt to protect individual students' privacy, the court said that the schools must write a computer program that removes user names and passwords from the Internet History Log files before making the Web site lists available to Knight, which both sides agreed would be easy to do. In addition, the costs of the editing and the disk copying must be paid by Knight or any other person requesting the records, the court said.

But "since the respondents have the capacity to produce the record in a manner that does not reveal confidential information," the judge said, the history log file "is not exempt" from the state's Right-to-Know law.

Greg Kann, chairman of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board, said in an interview that school board members would soon meet with their laywer and the superintendents to consider legal options. A decision on whether to appeal may be made as soon Friday, he said.

Jon Meyer, a lawyer in Manchester, N.H., who has experience in education law and civil rights cases, said that the New Hampshire decision is the first he is aware of involving a parent's right to gain access to school Internet records. He predicted that if Judge Abramson's ruling is not overturned, anxious parents in other states might be emboldened to use local right-to-know laws to gain access to and review school Internet history log files to check on student online activity.

Meyer also observed that one of the main issues in the Knight case was the balance between the values of privacy and disclosure. "It appears likely that the judge thought those issues could be reconciled" by editing out identifying personal information, he said.

Knight, a master plumber whose four children had attended schools in the Exeter area two years ago before transferring to private schools, has been a vocal critic of the local school boards' decision not to require filtering or blocking software on school computers. Concerned that students were visiting pornographic or other inappropriate Web sites, he sought access to Internet history log files from 1998 -- the date when a majority of local students gained online access in schools -- to the present. The lever he used was the state's Right-to-Know law, which requires public documents to be disclosed on request.

One of the key issues resolved by Judge Abramson's decision is whether history log files maintained by schools are "public records" under the disclosure law. School officials had argued in court papers that the files were private because students using school computers to access the Internet are not doing the official business of any public body. Rejecting this argument as "flawed," Judge Abramson said that students in schools are not using the computers for personal use "but as an integral part of the education curriculum." Thus the records of such official computer use must be deemed public, she asserted.

In addition, she noted that New Hampshire law requires the school districts to adopt an appropriate acceptable use policy for the Internet. When the local schools implemented those policies, the history log files were created "pursuant to law" and therefore must be considered public documents, said the court.

For his part, Knight, 44, said that he was "ecstatic" over the ruling. He said he hopes to review the school log files next week if possible.

"My request was reasonable," he said. "How else can a parent critique or decide if a site is appropriate for students unless you can get access?"

Knight also said that he had recently received e-mails from people in California, Utah, Colorado and Nevada who were interested in possibly filing their own lawsuits to get access to Internet history log files maintained by schools that do not offer filtering software. "They have the same concerns as I do," he said.

One expert in education law who has been following the case was critical of the court's ruling. Julie Underwood, general counsel for the National School Boards Association, based in Alexandria, Va., said she was concerned that the New Hampshire school officials would release private information about students' online activities.

"I don't think personally identifiable information in the Internet history log files can be easily redacted," she said. "You know, we have trained school districts not to release student files. And here they are forced to release information which they believe contains personally identifiable information on students."

Underwood noted that at a technology and learning conference in Denver two weeks ago, representatives from school districts across the country expressed concern that they might soon come under pressure to release Internet student activity files.

"Even if a school uses filtering software to block out some Web sites, the filtering software creates files, too, which may have to be released," she said. "That makes me nervous."

Michael Sims, a computer programmer and critic of filtering software in schools and libraries, agreed that filtering software creates useful log files that record Web sites visited by students and Web sites that were requested but blocked. He said if Congress eventually passes a law requiring filtering software in schools and libraries, as seems likely, he would use state right-to-know laws to obtain the log files in an attempt to challenge the law and the validity of filter programs.

"Absolutely, the precedent in New Hampshire will help us," he said.

Two years ago Sims and other activists from The Censorware Project, through an administrative process, successfully gained access to Web site tracking information contained on school computers in Utah. The group wanted to see how often students at Utah schools, which employ blocking software, were denied access to what the group deemed to be worthwhile sites.