Washington, DC-Colleges and universities may release more campus crime information as a result of this morning's Supreme Court ruling that individual students can't sue schools for releasing "education records" the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requires them to keep confidential. FERPA, which defines "education records" very broadly and applies to any public or private school receiving federal funds, has long been cited by colleges and universities as grounds for withholding access to campus crime records.

"Schools will no longer fear that they will be sued for a FERPA violation if they release campus crime information from a student's record," said S. Daniel Carter of Security On Campus, Inc. a non-profit campus safety organization that asked the Court to deny students the right to sue over FERPA violations in a brief filed earlier this year. "Currently there are a number of exceptions to FERPA, including a health and safety exception, as well as an exception permitting the disclosure of certain student judicial information, that institutions may have been reluctant to rely upon for fear of a private lawsuit against them arguing that they had exceeded these exceptions, even in a single instance, and violated FERPA. With this fear eliminated campus administrators may be more willing to disclose this information."

Ruling in Gonzaga v. Doe a 7-2 majority held that "action is foreclosed because the relevant FERPA provisions create no personal rights to enforce under" 42 USC § 1983, a law that allows individuals to sue when a government authority violates their rights. Congress did not specifically articulate a private right instead creating an administrative enforcement structure within the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to benefit a broad group of people rather than individuals the Court said in explaining their ruling.

This case resulted from a former student who sued Gonzaga University, a private institution, over the release of unsubstantiated sexual misconduct allegations to a state teacher licensing agency the student had applied to for a license. The Court assumed without ruling that because of involvement with the state agency Gonzaga's disclosure constituted state action subject § 1983. Last year the Washington state Supreme Court upheld a $1,155,000 damages claim against Gonzaga for that release, including $150,000 in compensatory damages and $300,000 in punitive damages on the FERPA claim. Today's ruling leaves intact damages awarded under state law, but eliminates the $450,000 in FERPA damages.

For More Information...

• Gonzaga v. Doe Ruling (U.S. Supreme Court; 06/20/02)
• Gonzaga v. Doe Case Documents
• Court sides with schools on privacy issue (Associated Press; 06/20/02)