Can I sue Callie Oettinger?

[Anonymous]

My kid is on SpEd and has an IEP but I haven’t received the letter, we enrolled in 2021 though. Wondering if the leak is just the older data. I am worry as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If your house got broken into many times by the same burglar because your front door doesn’t lock, at what point do you install a lock instead of blaming the burglar for continuing to walk in and lamenting how dare them.

No, honey. This is Virginia. We'd shoot the burglar the first time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sue any and everyone. But also lobby for a state law that prevents publishing private medical information that was mistakenly provided.

We are where we are because a judge ruled Callie and that other woman can legally publish private medical records. There is no benefit to the public by making these private medical records public.

Callie is a horrible person for doing this and it’s insane we need to legislate common sense. But here we are.

Not true. What she did was criminal.

Nope. That is not what the court ruling said.

But it might work out differently for a class action civil suit by parents. Because what she did was wrong.

You really are foolish. I'm not of friend of Callie's and I don't completely understand what went on but I see you are misrepresenting what she did with the data. If I were her and you said I was sharing that info when I was not, I would sue you.

She shared it with a journalist and she gave thumb drives of the data to the Goldwater Institute. She admits to both of those things. She has redacted examples on her website and the journalist has redacted images posted. That's enough for the claim. A good discovery process might find she shared it with others and that some of what she has posted constitutes sharing--even if she says she doesn't.

What law prevents her from doing that?

That's what parents should to talk with lawyers to find out (or for parents among the group to consider) When I say "that's enough for the claim" it means she doesn't have grounds to complain that others are saying wrong things about her. If it turns out after expert consultation that there is no law against this, then people need to publicly advocate for one and consistently use her as a prime example of horrible behavior of taking, keeping and sharing private sensitive data that still is somehow legal. If there aren't legal concerns, perhaps the bad publicity surrounding doing such acts will be a deterrence to others. But what I know for sure is that parents should NOT use your consistent curt badgering about 'no laws' as evidence that they have no possible directions to pursue when any reasonable person knows what she did with all our information is wrong. There may be ways in the court, there may be advocacy ways outside the court. I'm not talking about doxxing or protesting or whatnot--just regularly holding a light to her behavior and actions in every advocacy action for better laws in the FOIA process--and more consequences for what people who "inadvertently" get private data need to do with it.

This was my first post and it was a sincere question, so I have no idea why you are accusing me of consistent badgering. I really want to know since there is so much discussion of suing her - which law prevents what she did? I see how FCPS violated a law here, but I don't know of one that prevents Callie from doing what she did.

Sometimes someone can do something morally wrong but not illegal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And a lawsuit would cause Callie to have to spend money and time defending herself. Works for me. She wastes taxpayer money with her constant attacks on FCPS and she should get some of what she gives.

Please go on record and say you’re suing her to force her to spend money on legal fees and to drain the coffers of the Goldwater group. I would pay good money to be in the courtroom that day. That would be more exciting than a Taylor Swift concert. Please do it. Please.

Listen to yourself. You are getting pleasure at the legal naivete of parents whose children's sensitive, private information was taken, read, and shared by a person who is on some personal crusade at everyone's expense. So very gross.

No. I’m saying your desire to retaliate to get even is “so very gross”, and is a gross use of the legal system. So very gross.

I'm not the PP who had the desire to retaliate--and I know what you think you're saying--but think of the real picture. Oettinger decided to use these parents kids' private information without their consent for her own cause and they are thinking of what they can do to the person who intentionally decided to do this (which is separate from FCPS's flaws). They admit to no knowledge of the legal system and they will get counsel -- and I'm not so convinced as you that there aren't productive routes, especially if they consult with an organization that focuses on digital privacy.

To me, the issue is that you are gleeful that they find themselves thwarted by the lack of privacy laws in this space. You're just so happy that these victims find themselves frustrated by deep flaws in the legal system.

[Anonymous]

I thought this happened a while ago. Why did FCPS just send the letters out now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is on SpEd and has an IEP but I haven’t received the letter, we enrolled in 2021 though. Wondering if the leak is just the older data. I am worry as well.

It's not specifically special education related. Some of the documents were but many were not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought this happened a while ago. Why did FCPS just send the letters out now?

It happened again. This is the latest inadvertent incident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought this happened a while ago. Why did FCPS just send the letters out now?

It happened again. This is the latest inadvertent incident.

It's the first time my child's information was posted online as part of someone's vanity project. That wasn't FCPS. That was Callie Oettinger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And a lawsuit would cause Callie to have to spend money and time defending herself. Works for me. She wastes taxpayer money with her constant attacks on FCPS and she should get some of what she gives.

Please go on record and say you’re suing her to force her to spend money on legal fees and to drain the coffers of the Goldwater group. I would pay good money to be in the courtroom that day. That would be more exciting than a Taylor Swift concert. Please do it. Please.

Listen to yourself. You are getting pleasure at the legal naivete of parents whose children's sensitive, private information was taken, read, and shared by a person who is on some personal crusade at everyone's expense. So very gross.

No. I’m saying your desire to retaliate to get even is “so very gross”, and is a gross use of the legal system. So very gross.

I'm not the PP who had the desire to retaliate--and I know what you think you're saying--but think of the real picture. Oettinger decided to use these parents kids' private information without their consent for her own cause and they are thinking of what they can do to the person who intentionally decided to do this (which is separate from FCPS's flaws). They admit to no knowledge of the legal system and they will get counsel -- and I'm not so convinced as you that there aren't productive routes, especially if they consult with an organization that focuses on digital privacy.

To me, the issue is that you are gleeful that they find themselves thwarted by the lack of privacy laws in this space. You're just so happy that these victims find themselves frustrated by deep flaws in the legal system.

Again, no. I’m flabbergasted parents who don’t know the law are all ready to sue because they’re really pissed, but are eager to give fcps a pass…again. This is a pattern with them. Each leak is worse than the last, but yet they continue to do nothing to change course. This isn’t even the first time it happened with Callie. And last time, they sued and lost. So this time, they sent in a paralegal to make sure it went smoothly. Once again, it didn’t. There are serious flaws in fcps. Callie is a diversion. I for one will be furious if a few years down the road, my kids ssn or other personal data gets leaked to a real hacker who will use it for the express purpose of identity theft. It may already be happening. I’m sure hackers see fcps as a soft target with rich data that can be used for years before being discovered. If a 5 year old’s ssn is being used, you may not find out for 15 years when they apply for a credit card and find they’ve defaulted 7 times or have $1,000,000 in unpaid hospital bills. It happens all the time. But you’ll probably still blame Callie for tipping off the hackers how bad their security protocols are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And a lawsuit would cause Callie to have to spend money and time defending herself. Works for me. She wastes taxpayer money with her constant attacks on FCPS and she should get some of what she gives.

Please go on record and say you’re suing her to force her to spend money on legal fees and to drain the coffers of the Goldwater group. I would pay good money to be in the courtroom that day. That would be more exciting than a Taylor Swift concert. Please do it. Please.

Listen to yourself. You are getting pleasure at the legal naivete of parents whose children's sensitive, private information was taken, read, and shared by a person who is on some personal crusade at everyone's expense. So very gross.

No. I’m saying your desire to retaliate to get even is “so very gross”, and is a gross use of the legal system. So very gross.

I'm not the PP who had the desire to retaliate--and I know what you think you're saying--but think of the real picture. Oettinger decided to use these parents kids' private information without their consent for her own cause and they are thinking of what they can do to the person who intentionally decided to do this (which is separate from FCPS's flaws). They admit to no knowledge of the legal system and they will get counsel -- and I'm not so convinced as you that there aren't productive routes, especially if they consult with an organization that focuses on digital privacy.

To me, the issue is that you are gleeful that they find themselves thwarted by the lack of privacy laws in this space. You're just so happy that these victims find themselves frustrated by deep flaws in the legal system.

Again, no. I’m flabbergasted parents who don’t know the law are all ready to sue because they’re really pissed, but are eager to give fcps a pass…again. This is a pattern with them. Each leak is worse than the last, but yet they continue to do nothing to change course. This isn’t even the first time it happened with Callie. And last time, they sued and lost. So this time, they sent in a paralegal to make sure it went smoothly. Once again, it didn’t. There are serious flaws in fcps. Callie is a diversion. I for one will be furious if a few years down the road, my kids ssn or other personal data gets leaked to a real hacker who will use it for the express purpose of identity theft. It may already be happening. I’m sure hackers see fcps as a soft target with rich data that can be used for years before being discovered. If a 5 year old’s ssn is being used, you may not find out for 15 years when they apply for a credit card and find they’ve defaulted 7 times or have $1,000,000 in unpaid hospital bills. It happens all the time. But you’ll probably still blame Callie for tipping off the hackers how bad their security protocols are.

This is not what I blame Oettinger for. She acted with intention with children's private information without their or parent's consent. This is wrong. Deeply wrong.

It is separate from FCPS's flaws. I think we need national action on institutional data privacy. I personally don't see any benefit in suing FCPS which is a symptom of that problem, but I definitely see that this case should be used to look at the problem in a holistic way.

Personally I hope some digital privacy organization takes this case up in a major way to shine a light on a) the need for better institutional data privacy practice--case in example FCPS, b) better laws surrounding FOIA to avoid the increased likelihood data leaks in stressed, unsavvy or under-resourced organizations and the threat these pose to bad actors trying to trigger leaks, and b) consequences for bad actors like Oettinger, who intentionally keep and share others' private data without consent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still would prefer to sue FCPS. Y’all might hate Callie but she is h to e only one shining a light on how terrible special Ed is and how gatehouse is a mess with data and lots of other things- like the whole due process thing where parents never won because the judges were on the FCPS payroll.

I agree...

We are seriously thinking about suing everyone who is involved "by mistake or will"

[Anonymous]

All you bashing Callie should actually look into what she did and not believe the FCPS crowd who are smearing her. You should be way more concerned with who else got the same data and didn’t tell parents. You might not like what Callie has done but she is the only one who has told families how their data is being treated. This is a much bigger issue than FCPS wants to talk about

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought this happened a while ago. Why did FCPS just send the letters out now?

Exactly.

They like to release bad news abd controversial new ideas when parents are distracted and heading out for vacation. Usually, it happens the first few weeks of summer vacation. In this case, the timing appears they were hoping the letters arrived the beginning of winter break.

They have done this for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought this happened a while ago. Why did FCPS just send the letters out now?

It happened again. This is the latest inadvertent incident.

It happened almost 2 months ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And a lawsuit would cause Callie to have to spend money and time defending herself. Works for me. She wastes taxpayer money with her constant attacks on FCPS and she should get some of what she gives.

Please go on record and say you’re suing her to force her to spend money on legal fees and to drain the coffers of the Goldwater group. I would pay good money to be in the courtroom that day. That would be more exciting than a Taylor Swift concert. Please do it. Please.

Listen to yourself. You are getting pleasure at the legal naivete of parents whose children's sensitive, private information was taken, read, and shared by a person who is on some personal crusade at everyone's expense. So very gross.

No. I’m saying your desire to retaliate to get even is “so very gross”, and is a gross use of the legal system. So very gross.

I'm not the PP who had the desire to retaliate--and I know what you think you're saying--but think of the real picture. Oettinger decided to use these parents kids' private information without their consent for her own cause and they are thinking of what they can do to the person who intentionally decided to do this (which is separate from FCPS's flaws). They admit to no knowledge of the legal system and they will get counsel -- and I'm not so convinced as you that there aren't productive routes, especially if they consult with an organization that focuses on digital privacy.

To me, the issue is that you are gleeful that they find themselves thwarted by the lack of privacy laws in this space. You're just so happy that these victims find themselves frustrated by deep flaws in the legal system.

Again, no. I’m flabbergasted parents who don’t know the law are all ready to sue because they’re really pissed, but are eager to give fcps a pass…again. This is a pattern with them. Each leak is worse than the last, but yet they continue to do nothing to change course. This isn’t even the first time it happened with Callie. And last time, they sued and lost. So this time, they sent in a paralegal to make sure it went smoothly. Once again, it didn’t. There are serious flaws in fcps. Callie is a diversion. I for one will be furious if a few years down the road, my kids ssn or other personal data gets leaked to a real hacker who will use it for the express purpose of identity theft. It may already be happening. I’m sure hackers see fcps as a soft target with rich data that can be used for years before being discovered. If a 5 year old’s ssn is being used, you may not find out for 15 years when they apply for a credit card and find they’ve defaulted 7 times or have $1,000,000 in unpaid hospital bills. It happens all the time. But you’ll probably still blame Callie for tipping off the hackers how bad their security protocols are.

This is not what I blame Oettinger for. She acted with intention with children's private information without their or parent's consent. This is wrong. Deeply wrong.

It is separate from FCPS's flaws. I think we need national action on institutional data privacy. I personally don't see any benefit in suing FCPS which is a symptom of that problem, but I definitely see that this case should be used to look at the problem in a holistic way.

Personally I hope some digital privacy organization takes this case up in a major way to shine a light on a) the need for better institutional data privacy practice--case in example FCPS, b) better laws surrounding FOIA to avoid the increased likelihood data leaks in stressed, unsavvy or under-resourced organizations and the threat these pose to bad actors trying to trigger leaks, and b) consequences for bad actors like Oettinger, who intentionally keep and share others' private data without consent.

She did the wrong thing for thousands of FCPS families. She should be held accountable for her own bad actions.

Obviously FCPS has issues too that should be addressed but that’s not the point of this thread.

We are looking at Callie’s actions, which were abhorrent.