Lower Merion School District says highly sensitive documents were leaked

pâWait how am I reading thisâ one Lower Merion parent asked District officials said memos uploaded to BoardDocs should not have been publicly accessibleppThe Lower Merion School District said on Thursday that an unknown number of âhighly sensitiveâ documents were inadvertently published online due to what it described as a security breach involving its school boardmanagement softwareppThe software BoardDocs is used by school districts around the country to manage board meetings and post agendas and related information It is unclear if districts outside Lower Merion have been affectedppLower Merionâs solicitor Kenneth Roos said the school district first learned of the breach on April 10 when it was contacted by a litigant in a legal proceeding unrelated to the breachppRoos said internal records from the âexecutiveâ section of the BoardDocs site had at some point become accessible to the public School board members were notified and the problem was resolved he said ppThe district had not publicly disclosed the breach prior to being contacted by The Inquirer this weekppThe leaked documents included attorneyclient privileged legal memos that discuss ongoing litigation confidential employee information and issues involving students who are identified by their initialsppOne memo for instance refers to an investigation of an elementary school teacher A mother had accused him of âpredatory behaviorâ toward her sonppPolice and Montgomery County child welfare officials declined to charge the teacher with any inappropriate conduct but the teacher was suspended without pay briefly for violating the school districtâs adultstudent boundaries policy âon several occasionsâ according to the memoppRoos said BoardDocs which is developed and marketed by New Yorkbased Diligent Corporation âeventually acknowledged there was a bug or defect in the systemâ that led to the breachppIt remains unclear exactly how many internal Lower Merion documents were publicly accessible and for how long The Inquirer obtained and reviewed a sample of confidential records from 2017 to 2024ppNor is it known whether the apparent bug could have impacted other school districts that use BoardDocsppâThatâs a really good questionâ Roos saidppDiligentâs senior director of communications Michele Steinmetz declined to comment on the Lower Merion issue or whether any other districts have reported similar leaksppâWe understand this inquiry may be related to a school districtâs active litigation and it is our policy not to comment on ongoing litigationâ Steinmetz said by emailppSteinmetz did not cite specific litigation or respond to followup questions Lower Merion has not sued the company But Roos said it had âput them on notice that if we sustain monetary or other damages that we will hold them responsibleâppDiligent says BoardDocs and its other board portal software has more than 145000 users worldwide BoardDocs developed in 2000 offers âcustomizable securityâ to keep agenda items and documents private or make them public according to its websiteppâIn todayâs climate of escalating security risk and increasingly high stakes boards canât leave security to chanceâ the site states âDiligent delivers peace of mind with stateoftheart encryption data storage access controls and moreâppLower Merion spokeswoman Amy Buckman said the leaked documents were âhighly sensitiveâ and should not have been made publicppOne parent told The Inquirer of discovering the trove of confidential memos while looking through Lower Merion school board information on BoardDocsppâI was like âWait how am I reading thisâ Itâs weirdâ said the parent who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from the school board and other parentsppOfficials from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State Education Association the teachers union declined to comment on the apparent data breachppLower Merion School District located on the affluent Main Line in suburban Philadelphia recently ranked as the third best school district in the state according to the Pittsburgh Business Times school guide which bases its rankings on standardized test scoresppThe district recently hired Frank Ranelli former superintendent of Piscataway Township Schools in Middlesex County NJ after a series of leadership changes It is also recovering from an unusually contentious school board primary that included debate over antisemitism and diversity equity and inclusion initiativesppLast month Amazon Prime Video released Spy High a fourepisode docuseries that reexamined the 2010 Webcamgate scandal The district made international headlines that year amid the disclosure that it had captured images of students in their homes using the webcams on their schoolissued laptopsppInquirer staff writer Maddie Hanna contributed to this articleppp