School Board Meeting 2.15.2022 @ 7 PM

Here is an update of my intended discourse for the upcoming Board meeting.  You may read from the bottom up for context, please.  The School Board wants to say it's "law", but then they are misinterpreting the law and how it is written.   Will you join me at the meeting to support me?

Good morning, President Keith, Dr. Milleman, and Board Members,

With all due respect to all of you, I would like this subject added to the Agenda for civil public discourse. It is my understanding that the request must be made no later than 7 days prior to the meeting and the meeting takes place February 15, 2022 at 7 PM, thus making the deadline for submissions for adding to the Agenda tonight at 7 PM.

I would be happy to provide a list of the questions in advance for your review and preparation, so as you will have time to review and respond accordingly at the meeting. I don’t anticipate it taking much time, but I would appreciate a thoughtful public discourse regarding the concerns over this policy. (request submitted to add to the agenda via email February 9, 2022 at 7:15 AM EST)

My name is Joan Woods and I reside at XXXXXXXXXX, Whitestown, Indiana. This is our first year at Lebanon High School and I have a freshman attending here.

As a recap from the last School Board meeting for the benefit of those attending today who may not be aware of my concerns, and to set the premise of my standing before you today to participate in civil discourse:

The Supreme Court recently voted that the Government could mandate the inoculation of healthcare workers, due to the healthcare industry’s acceptance of Federal funding, through the Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act insurance programs. It is an alarming precedent that no doubt opens doorways for the mandate within the Department of Education, its schools, administration, employees, and our children, as they too receive Federal funding, as was witnessed in the last Board Meeting by the award of FEMA funding to the Lebanon Community School District.

Amendment X to the Constitution states that:

“powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.”

Nowhere in the Constitution does it speak of violating one’s rights to what medical practices or experimentation is conducted on one’s own body. As a matter of fact, the Constitution was written specifically to limit Government’s overreach on the side of personal freedom and liberty, as is eloquently exampled in Amendment IV, which reads:

“It is the right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures
shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue
but under probable cause supported by oath (allegation under oath)
or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched
and the persons or things to be seized.”

This insinuates boundaries: dates, times, locations and covers searches of peoples’ personal effects, and we could say online content, medical records, academic records, checking accounts, web-based communications. Without accusation, probable cause, subpoena… there is no excuse to reveal private details of a private citizen’s life, without that person’s consent.

In July of 2021, upon enrollment of my daughter, I gave written exemption to the sharing of my daughter’s personal information, without my knowledge and written consent, over all of her effects and her directory information, which includes; name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, height, weight, civic and political affiliations.

This immunization record on an academic transcript can only be used to discriminate, as her vaccination status has nothing to do with her academic prowess or ability to complete the work. A transcript is a report of performance including a student’s successful or unsuccessful navigation of a set of academic curricula. Its quantitative and qualitative summation is not affected in any way by sex, creed, skin color, blood type, disability, or lack thereof, or health status. The metrics listed for academic skillset are what she can do within academic criteria. To add any kind of student “status” outside of academic performance is allowing a subjective bias to enter the decision-making process of the recipient of her transcripts.

I come from a military family and we believe information is disseminated on a “need to know” basis and we value our privacy and that any information that is exposed about us be at the permission and will of our persons in compliance with Amendment IV of the United States Constitution.

Additionally, I have experience in reading and disseminating legal mil-standards and codes for military and public contracts which very clearly states that the word “shall” implies a mandate, and the word “may” implies a preference.

1. Does the School Board agree that Indiana Code 2021, Title 20, is the most recent law on record for the State of Indiana? This was revised November 9, 2021.

2. I have an electronic copy of the “Requirements and Guidance for Indiana High School Transcripts” that reads “Updated December 2021” and has Secretary of Education, Dr. Katie Jenner, noted at the top, on its cover. Secretary Jenner took office January 11, 2021. However, the hyperlinks within the document refer to an obsolete 2016 Indiana Code.

3. In your email correspondence to me dated February 8, 2022 at 9:31 AM, your email read that “Indiana Code 20-33-2-13 requires that school corporations include”, however that is not how the Indiana Code is written. Additionally, IC 20-34-4-1 comes into play here. IC 20-33-2-13 (2021), thereby being the current code, High School transcripts, required contents read:
Sec. 13 (a) “A school corporation shall record or include the following information in the official
high school transcript for a student in high school.
(1) Attendance Records.
(2) The student’s latest statewide assessment program results.
(3) Any secondary level and postsecondary level certificates of achievement earned by the student.
(4) Immunization information from the immunization record the student’s school keeps under IC 20-34-4-1
(5) Any dual credit courses taken that are included in the core transfer library under IC 21-42-5-4

4. 2021 Indiana Code Section 20-34-4-1 states:
IC 20-34-4-1Keeping immunization records; student transfer
Sec. 1. (a) Each school shall keep an immunization record of the school's students according to procedures prescribed by the state department of health.
(b) Whenever a student transfers to another school, the school from which the student is transferring may furnish, not later than twenty (20) days after the transfer, a copy of the student's immunization record to the school to which the student is transferring.
(c) Whenever a student enrolls in a state educational institution, the school from which the student graduated may furnish a copy of the student's immunization record to the state educational institution. If the student is enrolled in a state educational institution while still attending a secondary level school, the secondary level school that the student is attending may furnish a copy of the student's immunization record to the state educational institution.
[Pre-2005 Elementary and Secondary Education Recodification Citation: 20-8.1-7-9.]

5. Thus being, the School that my daughter attends is mandated to keep a copy of her immunization record, however it “may” indicating optional preference share that record. I have indicated in my original registration documentation for my daughter that such private information not be shared without my knowledge and expressed written consent.

6. Being the political climate is as it is with the COVID mandates politicizing vaccination records and potentially trying to limit the freedom and liberty of those who chose not to be vaccinated, is the Superintendent and the School Board willing to make a public statement that in no way, shape, or form will the receiving party of such transcript be able to develop even an slight partial bias against the student whose transcript includes medical information that in no way relates to the quantitative or qualitative measuring of that student’s academic prowess and performance?

7. Additionally, who are all the parties who have access to, or who are seemingly entitled to access to this private information? Under the provisions of FERPA (34 CFR 99.31) it indicates:

a. School officials with a legitimate educational interest; (Who? Please give example of educational interest.)
b. Other schools to which a student is transferring;
c. Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes; (Who is auditing and under what evaluation?)
d. Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student; (Can financial aid be denied on the basis of immunization record? What is the relevance of the health record to be on there.)
e. Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school; (What organizations and what studies?)
f. Accrediting organizations;
g. To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena; (finally, something Constitutional)
h. Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies, and (What constitutes an “emergency” and would COVID be considered an “emergency”?)
i. State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to a specific law
j. FERPA also indicates the following:
When a record is disclosed in the types of situations indicated above, the originating agency must note in the record the names of the parties who received the information and an explanation of the legitimate educational interest under the record that was disclosed. FERPA requires agencies or schools to account for all education records release, indicating the reasons the information was provided and who received it. These explanations must be recorded in the student’s record and maintained there until the agency destroys the record. (Where is this information stored and how do parents have access to it for review?)

8. What proactive notice and in what timeframe will a request to view our students’ records be given to the parents, and using what method of communication?

9. What process does the parent go through to either allow or deny such inspection and to whom should those communications go and by what method?

10. Wouldn’t it just be easier on the school and in the best interest of the students and families to just retain a copy of the immunization record, keep it confidential, and allow the parents to field inquiries to receive a copy of the information for parties to whom this information is relevant?

11. Why wouldn’t the school act in the best interests of the students and parents in keeping private information, confidential?