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Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, which advocates for government transparency, said the judge’s ruling “does a good job of balancing the public’s interest and transparency with protecting the privacy rights of these students.”
He questioned whether it was necessary to redact information about students’ special education, academic or behavioral plans, as the judge specified; his rationale echoes Hier’s. “I think it’s very important for the public to know not only when and how these restraint and seclusion policies are being implemented but if they’re being implemented perhaps disproportionately against those students,” Silverman said.
Asked if the ruling could have broader implications for other types of school-related records, Silverman said there’s little state case law addressing that question.
“But what this decision does is make very clear that in the case of student records, you can’t have a school claim that certain documents are wholly exempt from the public records law just because they fall into one particular category of exemptions,” Silverman said. [...]
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