Friday, September 19, 2008

Re: student names in email messages

Hi!

We have no formal policy, but I discourage middle school teachers from
using student names in subject headers, and never do myself. I might
write "a student," "an advisee" or something like that, to clue the
teacher in that the email probably shouldn't be read in a public
space. As far as avoiding student names in the body goes, I'm not sure
how you could avoid that without having to resort to typing "a student
whose name rhymes with way-bee pin tears" and the like. I think there,
you just have to educate teachers about where to read more sensitive
stuff. We do have a "Confidential" folder on our system for the most
private messages, and are periodically reminded never to read those
anywhere a student might stumble upon us. So far, no issues.

Take care,
Bill Ivey
Stoneleigh-Burnham School

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 7:41 AM, Matthew Frattali <mattfratt@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm wondering how schools address student privacy, especially a student's name, in emails from one
> teacher to another. When sending emails from one teacher to another, do you allow the use of the
> student's name in the subject line of the email? In the body of an email? Any feedback is appreciated.

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