April 6, 2008
Dear Patron,
On Friday, April 4, you received an email from the Liberty Public Schools notifying you that a patron, Mr. William Walker, made a request under the Missouri Sunshine Act ("Act") for all QuickNews subscribers' email addresses.
After our email was sent, numerous district patrons contacted our school district to express their concern and dismay that Mr. Walker would receive their email address. Patrons asked if we could provide a brief summary of why the law permits Mr. Walker to receive their email address. We are happy to provide this explanation.
The release of information by public bodies, such as our school district, is governed by the Missouri Sunshine Act, located in Chapter 610 of the Missouri Revised Statutes. All school district "records," whether in paper or data form, are considered "open" and must be produced when a request is made, unless a specific exception permits or requires those records to be treated as "closed." In order to designate a record as closed, that record must fall within one or more of the specific subsections of Section 610.021 of Chapter 610 noted above. A school district may, under Section 610.021, close records containing personally identifiable student educational information, personnel information, and the like. Email addresses do not fall within an exception, and, therefore, they must be produced under law. As you can see, our school district is prohibited by law from withholding these email addresses. We hope that this explanation is helpful.
Finally, several patrons who have contacted our school district expressed their frustration that they attempted to send an email to Mr.Walker to opt-out of receiving messages from him, but apparently his spam filter kicked their email back to them. In the event that anyone chooses to contact Mr. Walker through other means, his contact information is as follows:
Mr. William Walker
1021 Black Oak Drive
Liberty, MO 64068
(816) 781-3295
We hope this information is helpful. Again, we thank you for your support of our school district through your subscription to QuickNews.
Sincerely,
Board of Education of the Liberty Public Schools
