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* Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson back in January…
“When people don’t trust that district, I take that personal, not just because I’m the CEO, but because I owe everything in my career to CPS,” Jackson said.
Jackson promises more transparency in her tenure as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s fourth CPS CEO
* Yesterday…
We reported on sexual violence in Chicago Public Schools even though the district refused to release public records. But I want you to see some records they did release. This arrived from CPS this week: pic.twitter.com/h6JxayGfAF
— Jen Smith Richards (@jsmithrichards) August 1, 2018
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:18 am
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You gotta read between the lines.
Comment by TooDaLooMF Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:20 am
(325 ILCS 5/11)
Sec. 11. All records concerning reports of child abuse and neglect or records concerning referrals under this Act and all records generated as a result of such reports or referrals, shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except as specifically authorized by this Act or other applicable law. It is a Class A misdemeanor to permit, assist, or encourage the unauthorized release of any information contained in such reports, referrals or records.
Comment by GC Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:23 am
Next time CPS bids out a Sharpie contract, I am all over it.
Comment by Anonimity Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:24 am
@GC
Do you work as GC for the Mayor? If so, how are those formerly hush payments to Police Settlements coming along? No one is asking for the students name, or anything else that would be an embarrassment to any one protected person in the matter. Simply, they’re asking to see what happened, when, and how it was handled.
Comment by DaleyMail Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:26 am
Hopefully the elected members of the Chicago Public Schools board take punitive action.
Comment by Ravenswood Right Winger Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:28 am
GC beat me to this. I agree that CPS has been in the wrong. But not the reporter is also wrong for either (a) not doing her homework about confidentiality requirements; or (b) not disclosing them.
Comment by Southside Markie Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:30 am
hahahahahahaha. You can’t make this stuff up.
OK, maybe there are privacy laws, to protect children, that trump FOIA, I don’t know, but I know that the good people over at CPS aren’t too sad that they “have to” muddy the waters here.
Comment by Perrid Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:33 am
These are student records relating to sexual abuse - they are confidential per state law. CPS gets a lot of things wrong, but this isn’t one of them. They should not release this information. If the reporters want them, they can request the student’s parents provide them.
Comment by Anon Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:33 am
DaleyMail: CPS is required by law to refer certain matters to DCFS. It is also required by law to redact personal information from disclosures about how a matter referred to DCFS was handled in order to protect the privacy of the student involved. Would you want your child’s name and story publicly disclosed for possible publication on the front page of the Tribune?
Comment by Southside Markie Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:33 am
Set the alarming lack of transparency aside for a moment. How stupid is it to release a document that redacts all but one or two words? Why not just withhold the entire document and claim whatever FOIA exemption you think is appropriate? They’re just begging for public relations butt kicking.
Comment by Roman Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:36 am
This is the thing that has vexed me about the CPS sexual assault scandal. I want all the reporting in the world so that it is exposed, fixed - really fixed, and forever - and nobody gets ignored.
However, I also think there is great danger in exposing any details that might traumatize a child that has already been a victim. You can’t just say if they redact the names, that nobody will ever find out.
I guarantee there are other students at the school that have heard rumors, or could figure out who the child is from descriptions of the events. And to outline the entire trauma, timelines, specific abuse, for all their friends and classmates to see? That sickens me. Talk about extending the trauma.
So, what do you do here? No disclosure that provides what a journalist wants could ensure the anonymity of the child.
So I am torn.
Comment by Ok Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:39 am
@DaileyMail
What part of the law seems unclear to you?
If what you want to know is the CPS policy / procedure for responding, that is one thing. That absolutely should be public information. But information regarding actual incidents protected by the Act? NOPE.
Comment by Mr. Smith Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 9:41 am
SouthSideMarkie: we are in agreement. Read what I wrote. No one wants to know the student’s name, nor should anyone have a right to know. I’m criticizing that we have the right to know what happened (loosely) and what steps were taken. DCFS should be called. I’m not arguing any of that at all. I’m simply saying that under the current regime, things have been swept under the rug, and no accountability has been assumed on any issues of misconduct whatsoever.
This administration reacts to things and it does it by covering up until it’s uncovered, then acting like it did nothing at all. They knew and if they went out in front of it, they wouldn’t have the problem of lack of trust from concerned taxpayers like myself. There are a lot of us.
Comment by DaleyMail Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 10:15 am
Roman,
Exactly.
Rather than protecting confidentiality, this comes across as a taunting, mocking of the media. That always works well.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 10:16 am
Mr. Smith:
That is all I’m asking. We are in agreement, believe it or not. These poor kids have been victims already. It shouldn’t happen in the first place and proper protocol should be followed. Troy LaRaviere summed this whole situation up quite well before the latest tweet with redactions from Trib Reporter.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 10:18 am
Some reporters need to understand that not releasing documents or parts of documents is protected by law for very good reasons and the refusal or inability to release the information isn’t necessarily a refusal to be transparent.
In a past life, I dealt with a reporter who was incredulous that I couldn’t simply hand over protected information because it would have put my former employer at a serious disadvantage in a legal issue (and was protected by law). She literally thought her story was more important than my former employer’s ability to defend itself in court or its right to protection within FOIA laws.
To the post, as silly as this looks, it’s even worse- and potentially a violation of the law- to completely refuse to provide the documents, even if they’re heavily redacted.
Comment by Father Ted Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 10:58 am
Looks on par with the Federal records on JFK, Aliens, and Vietnam.
Comment by California Guy Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 11:36 am
I rarely indulge in grammar police tactics, but how can a CEO of a public school system not know when an adverb is needed.
To the subject. Transparency, without harming actual persons, is possible. Try harder.
Comment by cdog Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 11:52 am
If they redacted personnel information, information pertaining to the victim and that which is otherwise proprietary and cannot be released under the law, then they have to redact it. Show me any school district in Illinois that would be allowed to provide that level of detail.
Comment by Shytown Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 11:56 am
Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, GC.
325 ILCS 5 pertains to reports made to the department, and section 11 prohibits the release of those reports or info contained in them except under certain circumstances.
It does not prohibit the release of internal documents of a school, university, child care center, or any other government agency.
In fact, as we all know, police departments routinely release info about reported abuse cases, which is how this entire story got started.
CPS stonewalled requests for info, the Tribune want to the Chicago Police Deprtment, and the CPD happily turned over every police report for every call they received regarding the alleged sexual abuse of a student, names of minors and other prohibited info redacted of course.
CPS must believe there is another valid exemption, there are broad exemptions covering student records, but they cannot hide behind ANCRA.
Comment by ANCRA Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 2:36 pm
I’m not sure a case related to sexual violence in schools is a good example of a lack of transparency when it comes to releasing information. I wouldn’t expect much information to be made publicly available.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 3:18 pm
==Show me any school district in Illinois that would be allowed to provide that level of detail.==
http://illinoistimes.com/article-13915-accused-kept-job-despite-concerns.html
http://illinoistimes.com/article-19931-swee-too.html
Comment by Bruce Rushton Thursday, Aug 2, 18 @ 4:46 pm