Good Spirit reviewing privacy policies

After a student allegedly made a threat against a school earlier this year involving guns, a Good Spirit School Division employee breached the student’s privacy by shared too much of his personal information, according to Saskatchewan’s Commissioner of Information and Privacy.

Students and a substitute teacher reported overhearing a student make a threat against the school, which triggered a ‘violent threat risk assessment.’ A week later, the employee in question discussed details of the assessment with the student’s classmates and then sent a letter home to parents.

The letter included the specific wording of the threat, including an “opinion that the subject individual’s family are very responsible gun owners,” that the student couldn’t access weapons, that the student was suspended and the length of the suspension, Ron Kruzeniski wrote in his report, issued Aug. 9.

The Yorkton-area school division reported the breach to Kruzeniski’s office, and he opened an investigation on Feb. 8. In the meantime, Good Spirit notified the student’s parents and sent a letter to them. The school division apologized to the student’s parents.

The parents made a complaint about the breach to Kruzeniski on March 3.

“They contend that members of the community are treating their family negatively since the disclosure,” Kruzeniski wrote in his report.

He found that Good Spirit’s director of education learned of the breach that day and acted immediately. The director contacted a superintendent, who told the employee their actions could be a privacy breach and told the employee to stop discussing the assessment.

The school division learned the employee discussed the matter with students and sent the letter in response to inaccurate rumours about the incident, and after parents complained about the situation.

Before the incident, the student’s parents had expressed concern that their son was being bullied.

The school division found that the employee hadn’t followed the principle of disclosing the least amount of personal data necessary to meet a purpose.

Good Spirit told Kruzeniski it will review and update its policies and better track employee training on policies.

The employee has also been disciplined.