Schoolkids' Secrets Spilled

Gothamist doesn't know what's worse: Finding out that your child's school records were left outside a Board of Education office next to "pizza boxes, old air conditioning filters, and other recyclables" or having the Daily News call you to tell your that your child's records were sitting next to the trash. The Daily News broke the story yesterday, finding that 300 pounds of confidential information about children who were homeschooled due to injuries or debilitating illnesses were dumped on a Bronz sidewalk. Not only were the descriptions "embarrassing" (which students were pregnant, which were not toilet trained, which students were go into murderous rages), students' Social Security numbers were also included. The Daily News took it upon themselves to pick up the boxes, after a tip, and wrote:

The News is safeguarding the files at its main office. City lawyers asked that records be returned, but many parents are demanding the files be given to them - seeing as how the city has mishandled them once before.

The Daily News: Arbiter of city agency morals. But after some more talks with the BoE, the Daily News told the NY Times that they would cooperate. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein apologized, but had no answers for why one of those huge off-site shredder vans wasn't called in.

And the Daily News found more dumped boxes of files yesterday.