Parent says school assignment to take inventory of medicine cabinet invaded privacy

http://fox13now.com ^ | october 23, 2014 | max roth

[lowbridge]

Students at a Mapleton Junior High School in Utah County were asked to take inventory of the things inside their family medicine cabinet and then turn that list into their health teacher.

A parent, Onika Nugent, was not pleased with the assignment, so she posted the assignment on Facebook and sent a note to the teacher and the principal.

She shared a portion of the letter she sent school officials: “I said, ‘Although it may be a good idea for parents to do an inventory of their medicine cabinet, I believe it is inappropriate for students to counsel their parents, or report to the school what that inventory is. It is a complete invasion of privacy.'”

Part of the conversation online centered around whether or not the assignment was part of a larger curriculum. Nugent said the school has since responded and said the teacher made the assignment and the form herself and that it wasn’t part of a larger curriculum.

[cyclotic]

I knew a lady who escaped to the west from communist Poland. She would never allow her kids to participate in show and tell at school for exactly that reason.

[melissa_in_ga]

Was she in hospice? When my FIL was in hospice at home, the company provided all the morphine and valium. A dosage log was kept and they retrieved both the unused medication and the dosage log when he passed. Perhaps that’s what was happening here.

[driftdiver]

HIPPA applies to medical providers and their vendors. As written it wouldn’t help because the school would fall between those definitions. However there are state privacy laws this would run across. Trouble is the data was provided voluntarily.

[Clintonfatigued]

Libertarian ping