This mother of four AP students points out, among other things, that the new APUSH curriculum is anti-semitic. It presents World War II in a way that excludes the atrocities of Hitler and the heroism of those who fought him. This mother wants to know what the people of America are saying about the new College Board history curriculum which not only discludes the atrocities of Hitler, but does not include the Reverend Martin Luther King, nor Benjamin Franklin, nor the Gettysburg Address, nor the sacrifices and motivations of the signers of the Declaration of Independence– a curriculum that makes no mention of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and barely mentions George Washington.
I may pull out my hair and run screaming from the room if it is apparent in this Thursday’s school board meeting –as it was at the last meeting– that the board has not done any meaningful research on the facts concerning federal FERPA, and that the board remains Constitutionally ignorant, believing that the federal government has more authority than the state and local government and local district/parents have, over our own children and our children’s private data.
To be very, very clear: The Federal Register outlines, on page 51, that new federal FERPA altered regulations make it no longer a necessity for a school to get student’s or parent’s consent before sharing personally identifiable information; that action has been reduced to OPTIONAL by the Dept. of Education. There is no parental consent requirement nor any meaningful privacy regulation governing schools anymore, from the federal level.
Wasatch School District has a moral obligation to do better than the federal law is doing.
Even the USOE’s Brenda Hales gave out a paper on FERPA that shows (page 3) that the federal FERPA uses “permissive” language. This means we need to fortify our local privacy policy because the federal FERPA would permit almost anyone access to students’ private, identifiable information.
I highly recommend that the new district policy should state that parents will always be asked before the district shares any personally identifiable information with anyone outside the district.
Christel Swasey
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By the way, blog readers: if you live in the Heber Valley and have not yet written an email to the board for this 30-day public comment period, please do. Yes, I know they ignored us the last time, but Vicci Gappmayer retired last month and James Judd, her replacement, is much more reasonable and open to public input. Email him at james.judd@wasatch.edu .
COMMON CORE 