Issue: Parenting

We all knew times had changed when the National School Boards Association labeled parents “domestic terrorists” who dared to advocate for their children’s education at local school board meetings. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s response to the September 2021 letter and his willingness to use the full force of the FBI to hunt down dissenting parents marks a shameful period for our nation. 

While obligatory public apologies have surfaced since then, it seems that the motivation to suppress parents’ rights in public education is ever present. The Fairfax County Public School District, as one example, is known for using unethical methods to crush dissent and control the press. 

Enter Callie Oettinger. Oettinger is a Fairfax County mom and a special education rights advocate. It seems that she has become the enemy of the school because she requests records for her children (as per her rights under FERPA), and believes that the district has a responsibility to keep student data secure. 

The FBI does not appear to be involved in retribution this time, but Fairfax County Public School administrators have effectively villainized Oettinger as the community enemy. In a dazzling smoke screen, school administrators are absolving themselves of wrong-doing for a massive student data leak, and instead, implicitly placing the blame on Oettinger, who alerted the public of the data security problems. 

Below is a timeline of their playbook and its consequences. This seems to be the newest method Fairfax County Public Schools uses to deal with inquisitive parents – abdicate the district from blame and attack the messenger.

Making an Enemy of Oettinger: A Timeline

Oct. 19, 2023 – Massive Data Breach. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) leaks sensitive student data to Oettinger, who was accessing her child’s record under FERPA rights. Oettinger files complaints with the Office for Civil Rights and Office of Inspector General at U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and notifies a trusted journalist. 

Nov. 1, 2023 – The 74 publishes an article about the data breach. https://www.the74million.org/article/exclusive-virginias-fairfax-schools-expose-thousands-of-sensitive-student-records/

Dec. 7, 2023 – FCPS notifies all families and school administrators of data breach – notably more than a month after it happened, demonstrating that the impetus for the notification was not the breach itself, but the public awareness of it. The wording of district’s communication implies that the issue is that Oettinger blew the whistle, not that FCPS doesn’t secure student data: “This matter occurred on or about October 19, 2023. During an in-person review of information related to the reviewer’s own child, information relating to other students was unknowingly made accessible to a parent who retained an electronic copy of that information. Thereafter, the parent redacted the information related to other students and published the redacted information. Since learning of its publication on November 1, 2023, FCPS has worked to contain and secure the deletion of the information involved in this matter.”

Dec. 11, 2023 – On an anonymous and public forum (DC Urban Moms Forum), Fairfax community members discuss suing Oettinger – over 50 pages of anger. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1172964.page (Parents are also very hostile on public school social media pages). 

Dec. 12, 2023 – FCPS has to clarify that Oettinger does not share private information. https://www.fcps.edu/news/update-ferpa-disclosure 

Dec. 13, 2023 – Oettinger writes a letter in her defense. https://specialeducationaction.com/pro-tip-dont-believe-everything-fairfax-county-public-school-tells-you/

While the weight of the FBI isn’t behind this, a school district with a $3.5 billion budget has plenty of resources at its disposal to punish a conscientious parent for trying to hold administrators accountable. All of the district’s parents received an email notification from the superintendent with a strategically crafted message. Sadly, some of them grabbed their proverbial pitchforks and went hunting for Oettinger on social media. The passion is understandable since their children’s data was leaked, but their anger has been misdirected. Oettinger is not a domestic terrorist, nor is she at fault for the irresponsible data breach affecting thousands of children. 

Local school districts need to be transparent and hold themselves accountable. Inquisitive parents are not the enemy.