To be unhappy at finding my child's psychology reports in the Village Hall? And that the Head reported me to the police for taking her documents home?

[WHMum1806]

I found my DD and dozens of other kids school Special Educational Needs records in the Village Hall store cupboard (next to the school). These documents included psychology reports, learning plans, emails between parents & teachers and all their personal name and address details. The cupboard is locked but accessed by many parents and other people in the village not connected with the school. It is 100% NOT the place such sensitive information should be stored.

When I informed the Head her first response was to move the documents, her second was to report me to the police for theft as I had taken my daughters documents home with me for safeguarding until I was sure the school could look after them properly.

I try not to 'sweat the small stuff' in life but this and her subsequent disrespectful attitude has left me pretty annoyed.

I have been through the school complaints procedure and whilst acknowledging the data breach and lack of security, they seem to think calling the police (who turned up and discussed this in earshot of my DD who had no idea her documents had been compromised and was deeply upset) was perfectly reasonable response from the Head.

All I wanted was to be sure my DD's documents would be safe and stay safe (through a thorough review of how this happened) before I gave them back. My DD has left that school to go on to secondary but they need to hold her records until she is 25.

I would welcome any thoughts and advice - particularly if any Mums are involved in data protection or safe guarding of children.

"So you went in to a locked cupboard and rifled through files you found in there?"

Is that seriously your take away from the OP?!

YANBU, that is shocking. Why on earth were these documents not at school, has anyone explained?

This is a huge breach of the Data Protection Act. I handle sensitive information and would be strung up by the short and curlies if any of it was left unsecured like that. Report to the ICO. The police also handled this very badly.

No advice but I would have done the same. YANBU

Best of luck going forward with this

Its a bit like finding a wallet and keeping it safe, contacting the owner and them reporting you to the police.

It does sound like deflection.

Yep, definitely report them to ico as stated above - and the lovely thing is that as they have reported you to the police they wont be able to deny the records were seriously compromised and they they were definitely in breach

Primary schools usually transfer pupil records to the secondary when they leave. It's the secondary school that keeps them until they are 25.
It is definitely not ok for them to have kept such sensitive personal information in a village hall cupboard. They really can't plead ignorance here either because as well as having their own policy on data protection /confidentiality, the LEA must be reminding them of this stuff regularly.
You are absolutely right to be shocked and unhappy. Agree with PP about the school trying to cover their backs with the police. What a waste of their time! If you write to the ICO they will contact the school for a response and then judge whether it's likely they have breached the act or not. It might be useful in this case as it sounds like they are not taking their responsibilities for pupil information seriously. I think most people would have done the same as you. Don't worry X

The HT's reporting you to the police is her trying to deflect from the massive breach for which she is responsible.

She does realise that if it goes to anything with police it is all gonna come out then the head will probably be in even more trouble. I’d report.

I agree with others head is trying to cover her back ..

they have broken the law. report ico.org.uk/for-organisations/report-a-breach/

^THIS

Tbh the head also doesn’t sound very smart.

They broke the law, but so did you. And two wrongs do not make a right.

Taking each issue separately, they broke the law, their handling of sensitive information was lax and broke the data protection law. It should be reported to the Caldecott guardian. In future, such information should be stored in a locked cupboard, on school grounds where it can be accessed by people who should have access to it - NOT to anyone who can access the cupboard. It should be a cupboard (or filing cabinet) specifically accessed by people needing THAT information, or securely archived.

Removing your daughters records - you took something which did not belong to you. That is theft. Your reasons for taking them do not mitigate your actions, as understandable as it was.

I'm with you though. They shouldn't have stored them there and I'd have been furious.

OMG massive breach of data protection. As others have already stated refer this to the information commissioner.

Sure the police dealt with that with the contempt it deserved. I would have just given them to the head and saved head from the embarrassment rather than create a big issue. Happens in the best of places that paper records are mislayed its the human factor.

I would have done the same thing. How disgusting that they reported you to the police. Neither the head nor the police acted professionally. I would want to get the head in as much trouble as possible because this needs to be taken and seriously and they clearly couldn’t give a toss and it could happen again. And then maybe s/he will avoid records being compromised in future.

Needadvice, how did the OP break the law? The documents were not in a secure place, they were in a cupboard that the OP had access to. The documents that OP removed pertained to her daughter, for whom she is responsible and legal guardian to. I'm not being snarky or trying to undermine your argument but I am genuinely curious as to what part of the law the OP broke?

OP I would have been horrified! Fancy finding your child’s personal records collecting glasses from the PTA cupboard! So so wrong.

Headmistress totally deflecting. She knows. Sounds pretty desperate to call the police. What a waste of their time. And has just highlighted the situation further.

I would have done the same as you and removed the notes for safekeeping even if that is technically theft. I’m sure the police gave that accusation the contempt it deserved.

I think it is clear that it is the school who needs upbraiding on this. Human factor or not.

Did the OP actually break the law? Not in the UK but where I am private information belongs to the person it pertains to (very very broadly with lots of caveats). So the psych report was 'hers' actually. Morally, certainly she was in the right.

Could you miss the point more.......

It’s easy when you’re missing the point intentionally.

There’s a lot of it about.

For theft to be made out as a crime, there has to be an intention to permanently deprive the owner of the item / money etc. You have a lawful defence.

Report them to the ICO.

Haha at the ridiculousness of posters who are shocked at what you did!

You were very wise in only removing your own DD's report.

The school were in terrible breach of data protection. I work for a voluntary organisation which holds much less sensitive information (names & addresses mainly) - and we have VERY strict rules around how the information is kept and this village-hall-cupboard-with-multiple-access falls so far short as to be laughable. Which isn't to say it's a laughing matter, it's extremely serious.

I would most certainly report the school. And consider a police complaint if the way they handled it was poor (confronting you in front o your daughter sounds appalling).

Theft involves the intention to permanently deprive that person of the item. (Not sure what OP did was entirely legal, although it was understandable, but I'm not convinced its theft).

I would have thought OP could argue that she had no such intention, and she reported her removal of the documents to the HT straight away, so there should be no confusion over that.

This is likely to be a disciplinary offence for the HT, which is why she's trying to deflect.

cross post Vivienne

That's some cheek, reporting you to the police!

Report, report, report. I am in data protection for health research and if I did anything like that I would lose my job and my Trust would face an enormous fine - can be up to £500k.