Woman sues schools over robocalls
A woman received about 100 robocalls over four months from Orange County schools, alerting her about everything from an absent child to lockdowns and fundraising campaigns.
The problem is that Erlinda Kells lives in Palm Bay in Brevard County. And she doesn’t have any children in the public school system.
When the automated phone calls wouldn’t stop, Kells filed a federal lawsuit against the school board and accusing the district of relentlessly harassing her and violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Woody Rodriguez, the school district’s legal counsel, declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but wrote in an email the purpose of the federal act was to protect against unwanted telephone solicitation — not government entities giving out public service information.
The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Orlando, said the auto- mated calls were a “campaign of abuse’’ and that Orange County schools “has many similar complaints from consumers across the county.”
Kells doesn’t know how her number ended up on the call list for an Orlando middle school. She is seeking statutory, punitive and actual damages and any other relief the court rules is justified, the lawsuit said.
A man who identified himself as Kells’ husband said she declined to comment. Kells’ Tampa-based attorney, Amanda Allen, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The problems started when Kells began to receive calls from Walker Middle School, which is in South Orlando, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says she contacted the school and informed them of the mistake because she was concerned a family was missing out on information. A school employee promised the messages would stop.
They didn’t, said the lawsuit, which included a log of calls made from Aug. 1 to Nov. 6, 2014.
At 5:40 p.m. on Oct. 20 came on automated call that said, “Good afternoon parents, this is Dr. Valley, your proud principal at Walker Middle School. I just wanted to share with [you] that today at around 12:15, Walker Middle and Lancaster Elementary were on a lockdown.”
Then, 13 minutes later, Kells’ cell phone rang again.
“Hello. This is a message from the attendance office at Walker Middle calling to inform you that your student Angel was absent today.”
The calls notified Kells about magnet school options, membership dues for the parent-teacher organization and the deadline for fundraising packets. She was told about a parent’s academy and the proper procedure for students to transfer schools
“Happy Sunday, parents,” said the Walker Middle principal in an automated call during the dinner hour on Nov. 2 to remind about report cards.
Don’t forget to follow the school’s Twitter and Face- book or sign up for the weekly electronic newsletter “for more updates regarding our wonderful school,” he added.