Whoa FCPS- data breach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. While I sympathize, this woman has wreaked operational havoc on the schools her children have attended. I know one AP who spent her summer dealing with document requests from her instead of working on things that were needed to open school in the fall.

She was an "advocate" for one of the students in my lower ES class. She and the mom of the child were nasty from the second we sat down in an initial meeting. I typically walk into a meeting and present a pleasant greeting and small talk. Neither would make eye contact, let alone smile. They interrupted and they looked for any opportunity to find a "gotcha" moment. I remember trying to point out some positives about the child's academic work and they didn't want to hear it. It was all very negative and stressful when all I wanted to do was work with the parent in support of the child.

Nobody owes you pleasantries especially during a stressful time. Your focus once you walk in that room should be identifying problems and solutions to help that child. The parent (or child if they are present) should be the lead voice of the meeting, if they find it necessary to interrupt anyone then so be it. Sounds like you weren’t being helpful and they were trying to best utilize the time and keep the focus on identifying concerns and solutions. An advocate is there to help advocate for the child/parent and step in when they need to keep the focus on problems and solutions, it sounds like they did that. If something offended you then you should use it as a learning experience for how to conduct yourself differently next time. A productive IEP will skew negative and stressful in general, so you might need to change your expectations. I hope you keep the bad mouthing of other advocates and parents to yourself though, it’s really not a good look for a teacher.

You sound insufferable PP. I am so glad I am not a teacher. You can be an advocate and not act like a jerk. Coming at people rudely immediately puts them on the defensive. In fact-this is common sense for anyone with any sort of interpersonal skills. You can be direct and respectful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I personally would prefer for Callie to actually advocate on behalf of kids with IEPs. Instead, she just uses those kids to expose FCPS. She's useless.

She attended one meeting as an advocate. She also has a lot of useful information on 504s and IEPs and Virginia law. When is FCPS going to tell families about this breech?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. FCPS is careless with these records and needs to fix this problem ASAP.

No one disagrees with this. But two wrongs don't make a right and her choice to not inform the district that she was accidentally given the records, and then publish them herself, is wrong.

I actually had a situation where medical records of a different child were sent to a surgeon, who did not discover the mistake until he was in the middle of the surgery on my child.

Working backwards, it was an honest mistake.

However, my keeping quiet and only discreetly following up with the office at fault would serve no purpose for the greater good and would perhaps result in a similar situation happening to another child that did not end as well as it did for my child.

Sometimes, as distasteful as it may seem, you need to speak up and inform other parents and other people affected by a big institutional mistake, even if it embarrasses or harms the person or organization who made the mistake. This is especially true if the mkstake was particularly significant, sloppy, or affects someone else in a way that can cause long lasting harm.

As distasteful as it is for her to go public like this, this particular and type of data breach is not a unique occurrence for FCPS.

Is it an innocent mistake? Almost certainly.

Should this parent have simply quietly informed FCPS and let them sweep it under the rug so the district and school were not embarrassed and no one held accountable, with no parents aware that this even happened? Absolutely not.

Sometimes, doing the right thing is hard and distasteful. This is one of these cases.

Having experienced a critical information mistake myself for my child, I think that this parent did the right thing by going public and contacting whatever affective parents she could find.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. While I sympathize, this woman has wreaked operational havoc on the schools her children have attended. I know one AP who spent her summer dealing with document requests from her instead of working on things that were needed to open school in the fall.

She was an "advocate" for one of the students in my lower ES class. She and the mom of the child were nasty from the second we sat down in an initial meeting. I typically walk into a meeting and present a pleasant greeting and small talk. Neither would make eye contact, let alone smile. They interrupted and they looked for any opportunity to find a "gotcha" moment. I remember trying to point out some positives about the child's academic work and they didn't want to hear it. It was all very negative and stressful when all I wanted to do was work with the parent in support of the child.

Nobody owes you pleasantries especially during a stressful time. Your focus once you walk in that room should be identifying problems and solutions to help that child. The parent (or child if they are present) should be the lead voice of the meeting, if they find it necessary to interrupt anyone then so be it. Sounds like you weren’t being helpful and they were trying to best utilize the time and keep the focus on identifying concerns and solutions. An advocate is there to help advocate for the child/parent and step in when they need to keep the focus on problems and solutions, it sounds like they did that. If something offended you then you should use it as a learning experience for how to conduct yourself differently next time. A productive IEP will skew negative and stressful in general, so you might need to change your expectations. I hope you keep the bad mouthing of other advocates and parents to yourself though, it’s really not a good look for a teacher.

You sound insufferable PP. I am so glad I am not a teacher. You can be an advocate and not act like a jerk. Coming at people rudely immediately puts them on the defensive. In fact-this is common sense for anyone with any sort of interpersonal skills. You can be direct and respectful.

+ a million. I have a child with a physical disability that qualifies them for a 504 plan. I have noticed that parent and advocacy groups for this disability almost coach parents to go into the meetings combatively, like assuming the school is not going to meet their child’s needs before they even start. Then parents wonder why the meeting didn’t go so well. I go in with a smile and respectful attitude and everything goes smoothly. I don’t listen to those groups anymore because they don’t know my child and what my child needs. If I did what they advised it would lead to a breakdown of the relationships between parties that all need to be working together. This seems like common sense to me. You can catch more flies with honey….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. While I sympathize, this woman has wreaked operational havoc on the schools her children have attended. I know one AP who spent her summer dealing with document requests from her instead of working on things that were needed to open school in the fall.

She was an "advocate" for one of the students in my lower ES class. She and the mom of the child were nasty from the second we sat down in an initial meeting. I typically walk into a meeting and present a pleasant greeting and small talk. Neither would make eye contact, let alone smile. They interrupted and they looked for any opportunity to find a "gotcha" moment. I remember trying to point out some positives about the child's academic work and they didn't want to hear it. It was all very negative and stressful when all I wanted to do was work with the parent in support of the child.

Nobody owes you pleasantries especially during a stressful time. Your focus once you walk in that room should be identifying problems and solutions to help that child. The parent (or child if they are present) should be the lead voice of the meeting, if they find it necessary to interrupt anyone then so be it. Sounds like you weren’t being helpful and they were trying to best utilize the time and keep the focus on identifying concerns and solutions. An advocate is there to help advocate for the child/parent and step in when they need to keep the focus on problems and solutions, it sounds like they did that. If something offended you then you should use it as a learning experience for how to conduct yourself differently next time. A productive IEP will skew negative and stressful in general, so you might need to change your expectations. I hope you keep the bad mouthing of other advocates and parents to yourself though, it’s really not a good look for a teacher.

You sound insufferable PP. I am so glad I am not a teacher. You can be an advocate and not act like a jerk. Coming at people rudely immediately puts them on the defensive. In fact-this is common sense for anyone with any sort of interpersonal skills. You can be direct and respectful.

Have you ever been in an IEP? You would understand what I meant by negative and stressful usually equates to productive. Negative referring to the fact that most of the meeting is centered around your child’s deficits and what they can’t do. It’s not a pleasant meeting on that basis alone, no matter how “nice” people are being. It’s also stressful trying to come to a consensus with 5-10 people about how to work together to fix all the things wrong with your child within the confines of a broken system. That’s when the parent and advocate have to take charge and voice what’s important. The advocate usually seems like the bad guy because it often seems like an us (child, parent, advocate, outside providers) vs them (teachers, school personnel) approach when school districts try to skirt the issues like the teacher I was replying to was likely doing. You can be the nicest person in the world and a productive IEP will probably still leave you feeling like $&@! A teacher needs to know when saying all the great things about little Larlo isn’t useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. While I sympathize, this woman has wreaked operational havoc on the schools her children have attended. I know one AP who spent her summer dealing with document requests from her instead of working on things that were needed to open school in the fall.

She was an "advocate" for one of the students in my lower ES class. She and the mom of the child were nasty from the second we sat down in an initial meeting. I typically walk into a meeting and present a pleasant greeting and small talk. Neither would make eye contact, let alone smile. They interrupted and they looked for any opportunity to find a "gotcha" moment. I remember trying to point out some positives about the child's academic work and they didn't want to hear it. It was all very negative and stressful when all I wanted to do was work with the parent in support of the child.

Nobody owes you pleasantries especially during a stressful time. Your focus once you walk in that room should be identifying problems and solutions to help that child. The parent (or child if they are present) should be the lead voice of the meeting, if they find it necessary to interrupt anyone then so be it. Sounds like you weren’t being helpful and they were trying to best utilize the time and keep the focus on identifying concerns and solutions. An advocate is there to help advocate for the child/parent and step in when they need to keep the focus on problems and solutions, it sounds like they did that. If something offended you then you should use it as a learning experience for how to conduct yourself differently next time. A productive IEP will skew negative and stressful in general, so you might need to change your expectations. I hope you keep the bad mouthing of other advocates and parents to yourself though, it’s really not a good look for a teacher.

You sound insufferable PP. I am so glad I am not a teacher. You can be an advocate and not act like a jerk. Coming at people rudely immediately puts them on the defensive. In fact-this is common sense for anyone with any sort of interpersonal skills. You can be direct and respectful.

+ a million. I have a child with a physical disability that qualifies them for a 504 plan. I have noticed that parent and advocacy groups for this disability almost coach parents to go into the meetings combatively, like assuming the school is not going to meet their child’s needs before they even start. Then parents wonder why the meeting didn’t go so well. I go in with a smile and respectful attitude and everything goes smoothly. I don’t listen to those groups anymore because they don’t know my child and what my child needs. If I did what they advised it would lead to a breakdown of the relationships between parties that all need to be working together. This seems like common sense to me. You can catch more flies with honey….

Report back after you go through an IEP not just a 504.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. While I sympathize, this woman has wreaked operational havoc on the schools her children have attended. I know one AP who spent her summer dealing with document requests from her instead of working on things that were needed to open school in the fall.

She was an "advocate" for one of the students in my lower ES class. She and the mom of the child were nasty from the second we sat down in an initial meeting. I typically walk into a meeting and present a pleasant greeting and small talk. Neither would make eye contact, let alone smile. They interrupted and they looked for any opportunity to find a "gotcha" moment. I remember trying to point out some positives about the child's academic work and they didn't want to hear it. It was all very negative and stressful when all I wanted to do was work with the parent in support of the child.

Nobody owes you pleasantries especially during a stressful time. Your focus once you walk in that room should be identifying problems and solutions to help that child. The parent (or child if they are present) should be the lead voice of the meeting, if they find it necessary to interrupt anyone then so be it. Sounds like you weren’t being helpful and they were trying to best utilize the time and keep the focus on identifying concerns and solutions. An advocate is there to help advocate for the child/parent and step in when they need to keep the focus on problems and solutions, it sounds like they did that. If something offended you then you should use it as a learning experience for how to conduct yourself differently next time. A productive IEP will skew negative and stressful in general, so you might need to change your expectations. I hope you keep the bad mouthing of other advocates and parents to yourself though, it’s really not a good look for a teacher.

You sound insufferable PP. I am so glad I am not a teacher. You can be an advocate and not act like a jerk. Coming at people rudely immediately puts them on the defensive. In fact-this is common sense for anyone with any sort of interpersonal skills. You can be direct and respectful.

+ a million. I have a child with a physical disability that qualifies them for a 504 plan. I have noticed that parent and advocacy groups for this disability almost coach parents to go into the meetings combatively, like assuming the school is not going to meet their child’s needs before they even start. Then parents wonder why the meeting didn’t go so well. I go in with a smile and respectful attitude and everything goes smoothly. I don’t listen to those groups anymore because they don’t know my child and what my child needs. If I did what they advised it would lead to a breakdown of the relationships between parties that all need to be working together. This seems like common sense to me. You can catch more flies with honey….

Everyone's experience is different. Our middle school was in a different pyramid than the high school and elementary and the behavior of the teachers and staff were completely different. One group made me feel like they were there to help my child. The other group both at the elementary and high school level made me feel like they were trying to get out of work as much as possible. It was clearly a pyramid approach to these meetings that was the driving direction to how they were conducted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. While I sympathize, this woman has wreaked operational havoc on the schools her children have attended. I know one AP who spent her summer dealing with document requests from her instead of working on things that were needed to open school in the fall.

She was an "advocate" for one of the students in my lower ES class. She and the mom of the child were nasty from the second we sat down in an initial meeting. I typically walk into a meeting and present a pleasant greeting and small talk. Neither would make eye contact, let alone smile. They interrupted and they looked for any opportunity to find a "gotcha" moment. I remember trying to point out some positives about the child's academic work and they didn't want to hear it. It was all very negative and stressful when all I wanted to do was work with the parent in support of the child.

Nobody owes you pleasantries especially during a stressful time. Your focus once you walk in that room should be identifying problems and solutions to help that child. The parent (or child if they are present) should be the lead voice of the meeting, if they find it necessary to interrupt anyone then so be it. Sounds like you weren’t being helpful and they were trying to best utilize the time and keep the focus on identifying concerns and solutions. An advocate is there to help advocate for the child/parent and step in when they need to keep the focus on problems and solutions, it sounds like they did that. If something offended you then you should use it as a learning experience for how to conduct yourself differently next time. A productive IEP will skew negative and stressful in general, so you might need to change your expectations. I hope you keep the bad mouthing of other advocates and parents to yourself though, it’s really not a good look for a teacher.

My child is 18 and has had an IEP since age 3. I have literally been to over 100 IEP meetings. So many.
The absolute WORST is when people waste my time with the "Compliment Sandwich" that they learn in Psycohlogy 101. Just stick to the facts and be efficient please.

[Anonymous]

What do the parents of these children and the children have to say about this data breach to either Callie or to FCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do the parents of these children and the children have to say about this data breach to either Callie or to FCPS?

Agree.

Some of you need to go start your own “Callie” thread; I don’t know her and I don’t care to.

As a parent, I care about any data breaches affecting my kids, and why FCPS keeps letting this happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a lawyer who has some familiarity with large companies and their data security, I find it laughable that people expect a school district to have similar security. If they set aside the budget for that, everyone would be furious. That's not what school administration is for, it's not what we want them to be skilled experts in.

Exactly. I used to work for FCPS and my spouse works in a FOIA department for the federal gov't. FCPS doesn't have *anything* like the staffing that most major FOIA divisions of government agencies have, much less actual tech-side data security staff. My spouse was horrified by the lack of professional support for when I was part of a large FOIA/FERPA request.

Class sizes are SO huge in FCPS now that I'm appalled that the public balks so much about increasing FCPS budgets...but in addition to needing way more instructional staff and paying them far better than we do now, human mistakes like this are going to happen if FCPS doesn't have dedicated staffing (and a LOT of it) for a professional, experienced disclosure division.

[Anonymous]

Callie requests piles and piles and piles of information on a weekly basis, literally hoping for FCPS to slip up. When they do, she is gleeful and excited to share with the world.

The reality is, if staff wasn't wasting their time on her useless requests, they'd have more energy to validate all the other requests.

Should they have given her these files? Of course not. But unless staffing is way ramped up, these kinds of slip ups are inevitable.

Her buddy Tisler had a kid at my school. We literally designated multiple staff members both school based and central office JUST to work with her. They are birds of the same feather. So much time was taken away from students just to fulfill her demands. It's gross.

They are manipulative and conniving "advocates" and horrible human beings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Callie requests piles and piles and piles of information on a weekly basis, literally hoping for FCPS to slip up. When they do, she is gleeful and excited to share with the world.

The reality is, if staff wasn't wasting their time on her useless requests, they'd have more energy to validate all the other requests.

Should they have given her these files? Of course not. But unless staffing is way ramped up, these kinds of slip ups are inevitable.

Her buddy Tisler had a kid at my school. We literally designated multiple staff members both school based and central office JUST to work with her. They are birds of the same feather. So much time was taken away from students just to fulfill her demands. It's gross.

They are manipulative and conniving "advocates" and horrible human beings.

You actually think a parent requesting information for their child is the problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Callie requests piles and piles and piles of information on a weekly basis, literally hoping for FCPS to slip up. When they do, she is gleeful and excited to share with the world.

The reality is, if staff wasn't wasting their time on her useless requests, they'd have more energy to validate all the other requests.

Should they have given her these files? Of course not. But unless staffing is way ramped up, these kinds of slip ups are inevitable.

Her buddy Tisler had a kid at my school. We literally designated multiple staff members both school based and central office JUST to work with her. They are birds of the same feather. So much time was taken away from students just to fulfill her demands. It's gross.

They are manipulative and conniving "advocates" and horrible human beings.

The issue isn’t lack of time for validation of requests, it’s that the information WASN’T EVEN PASSWORD PROTECTED. This is HIPPA 101, your system has to do better and that won’t happen by blaming the victims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Callie requests piles and piles and piles of information on a weekly basis, literally hoping for FCPS to slip up. When they do, she is gleeful and excited to share with the world.

The reality is, if staff wasn't wasting their time on her useless requests, they'd have more energy to validate all the other requests.

Should they have given her these files? Of course not. But unless staffing is way ramped up, these kinds of slip ups are inevitable.

Her buddy Tisler had a kid at my school. We literally designated multiple staff members both school based and central office JUST to work with her. They are birds of the same feather. So much time was taken away from students just to fulfill her demands. It's gross.

They are manipulative and conniving "advocates" and horrible human beings.

You actually think a parent requesting information for their child is the problem?

No, but that's not what she's doing, as PP indicated.