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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Can I sue Callie Oettinger?
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Anonymous
If repeating the same false info over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over for 73 pages in hopes that will make it true is “civil”…well then, mea culpa (that means my bad) |
Anonymous
Nothing I’ve posted is false. |
Anonymous
Then I guess it wasn’t directed to you then, now was it? |
Anonymous
If you have nothing to add to the discussion then sit down. |
Anonymous
|
Case closed:
"Oettinger said the lead investigator, Beth Waller, never contacted her. Waller did not return calls or emails seeking comment. Reid’s letter to families stated that Oettinger and her attorney “provided declarations under oath and penalty of perjury stating they have deleted and do not have any of the identifiable student information that was involved in this incident.” Oettinger said she wished the district had made greater efforts to clarify that she didn’t release any student’s private information. " https://www.the74million.org/article/fairfax-district-urged-to-clean-up-student-privacy-protections/ |
Anonymous
If they sent her data, she didn't steal it. |
Anonymous
She addresses many of these questions, with comment section in various posts on her non profit website: https://specialeducationaction.com/person/about-callie-oettinger/ Yes, fcps was that lazy. Fcps have her information that was for her child, but also included emails, which then has embedded attachments about her child, but also other attachments about others. |
Anonymous
Lol, fcps does not hire IT people for their IT department! I did an intern for fcps while in high school. ALL of the IT people I met were previously in other government positions, but instead of being let go, they we're moved to fcps IT department, instead of fighting the union, or got there as a favor. A few were able to do ok in fcps IT, instead of managing a class room. Many do the bare minimum. Some take pride in their new role, and ok, and get by, even though they have no IT background. Interestingly, one of the smartest guys, was an ex cop that had a mental break down while he was on the force, so he instead got into fcps IT(no IT background). I remember he had facial ticks and severe anxiety, but was one of the few people in fcps IT that knew stuff, as he just kept working on something until he could figure it out. |
Anonymous
Thank you for your kind words, and Merry Christmas everyone! Much of the back and forth on this forum is now moot, as Callie has declared under oath that she has deleted all the private information that was inadvertently provided to her by FCPS. Lesson 1: FCPS messed up. Lesson 2: After upsetting 35,000 of her neighbors, and needlessly wasting thousands (if not millions) of taxpayers' dollars to make her point, Callie eventually realized that it is smart to do the moral and ethical thing. Since Special Education Action, Inc. did not publish any private information (e.g., HIPAA), there is no reason to believe that they did anything illegal with regard to the data breach. If you want, you can communicate your displeasure about Callie's actions to the Board of Directors of Special Education Action Incorporated (Entity ID 11354161), which is incorporated as a Virginia Nonstock [Non-Profit] Corporation. More likely than not, however, you have already been communicating with Callie or these 'I-am-not-Callies' on this forum. You also have the legal right to request a summary of the non-profit's financial statements (known as Form 990) for the last three years. Although their failure to respond to public requests to provide these statements risks the tax-exempt status of the organization, the details that Special Education Action Incorporated is required to report are limited, since their lemonade stand has a tiny budget. If you want to use snail mail, the names and addresses of these corporate officers and directors are publicly available on the website of the State Corporation Commission at https://cis.scc.virginia.gov/EntitySearch/Index. Or you can email Callie using her organization's handy 'contact us' form to request their financial statements: https://specialeducationaction.com/contact-special-education-action/ As far as I can tell, the only remaining legal issue is that Special Education Action Inc. solicits charitable contributions without being properly registered to do so. (Not all states require this, but Virginia does). Among other solicitations, Special Education Action Incorporated's website has a 'Please Donate' button and a donation form on its website. The words 'Please Donate' constitute a 'solicitation of a contribution' in Virginia. A VDACS database search suggests that Special Education Action Incorporated is NOT registered with VDACS Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs (OCRP) as required by the Virginia Solicitation of Contributions Law: https://cos.vdacs.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/char_search.cgi There is no need for anyone to hire a lawyer to address this issue. "Any person who willfully and knowingly violates or causes to be violated any provision of this chapter [i.e., the Virginia Solicitation of Contributions Law (VSOC)] ... shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished for the first offense by a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000 or by confinement in jail for not more than six months, or both, and for the second and any subsequent offense by a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $2,500 or by confinement in jail for not more than one year, or both... Whenever the Commissioner [of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services] has reasonable cause to believe that a violation of this chapter may have occurred, the Commissioner, upon his own motion or upon complaint of any person, may investigate any charitable or civic organization ... to determine whether such charitable or civic organization... has violated the provisions of this chapter. (VA Code § 57-59) The Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services responsible for enforcement of this law is Mr. Joseph Guthrie (Phone: 804.786.3501, email: vdacs.commissioner@vdacs.virginia.gov). When you contact a senior state official with a request, it is good practice to inform your elected representatives (i.e., you state senator and state representative) so they can make sure the state government's executive branch follows up appropriately! https://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/ |
Anonymous
| I don’t have time to read through 70 pages. Is there a class action forming? If so, please post the information here I’d like to join it. |
Anonymous
| Except she sent the information to a reporter before she supposedly deleted it. How do we know if the reporter deleted it, or shared it with anyone else? |
Anonymous
Just like you have no idea what every other parent has done with the data they were given that they shouldn’t have been. We can go round and round for years on this, but once fcps gives it out, it’s impossible to ever know where it goes from there. That is fact. Everything else is assumption. This is why the criticality is for fcps to protect our kids’ data. |
Anonymous
| FCPS did not share anywhere in their official email about this that she gave ALL the data to a reporter. That is so dishonest. |
Anonymous
| Does anyone have the URL for where the data on the children were posted? We came back from our Christmas break to find this letter from FCPS. As far as I can tell this was a FERPA request for children with an IEP and special needs; however, my child has neither, so I don't even understand how her information was accidentally released. Other kids in her grade that we are friendly with didn't receive this letter so I know that this letter wasn't sent to every kid in FCPS or even most kids. If you have the URL, please post. It's almost 73 pages of discussion and hard to tell if the website was posted earlier. I didn't see the data on Callie's webpage. |
Anonymous
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The problem here is that the law didn't anticipate malevolent gadflies abusing the FOIA system like this and there is no statute that prevents the dissemination of the data once it has been released by the school system.
The law needs to be amended to take people like her into account. |