Do College Kids Have Too Much Privacy?
College students are adults. Do they really need their parents to monitor them?
Los Angeles Times reports.
College kids have too much privacy
A few years ago, an acquaintance received a stunning phone call from her daughter’s former college roommate. The conversation went something like this:
“I thought you should know your daughter never graduated from college.”
“What? She claimed she was just skipping the ceremony.”
“Well, the truth is she didn’t attend classes the last two years.”
The parents were shellshocked, concerned and ultimately furious at the school. “Why didn’t they tell us?”
The answer is FERPA.
Passed in 1974, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is an unwieldy piece of legislation affecting all institutions that receive funding from the Department of Education. Although it has been amended over the years, the law’s bottom line remains: “Once a student reaches 18 years of age or attends a postsecondary institution, he or she becomes an ‘eligible student’ and all rights under FERPA transfer from the parent to the student.”
Comments
If I read that correct, the parents had no clue what their daughter was doing for two years, maybe more. The parents are idiots and have no business wondering why the college didn’t tell them stuff. All they had to do was ask for transcripts from the daughter and any half witted human would be able to tell if she was on schedule.
Big fail to the parents.