School (in)Security is our biweekly briefing on the latest school safety news, vetted by Mark Keierleber. Subscribe here.
The Federal Trade Commission announced this month plans to crack down on technology company Illuminate Education over a massive 2021 data breach. The move added to a long list of government actions against the firm since hackers broke into its systems and made off with the sensitive information of more than 10 million students.
Three state attorneys general have also now imposed fines and security mandates on the company following allegations it misled customers about its cybersecurity safeguards and waited nearly two years to notify some school districts of the widespread data breach.
The ones that haven’t made progress in their efforts to hold Illuminate accountable are parents and students.
Their pursuit hit a wall in September when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a federal lawsuit filed by the breach victims. The court, ruling on a case filed in California, found that the theft of their personal data — including grades, special education information and medical records — didn’t constitute a concrete harm.
In the news
The latest in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown: In many cities across the country, from New Orleans to Minneapolis, resisting federal immigration enforcement means keeping kids in school. | The 74
- Trump’s mass deportation effort has had a particularly damaging effect on the child care industry, which is heavily reliant on immigrant preschool teachers — most of them working in the U.S. legally — who have found themselves “wracked by anxiety over possible encounters with ICE.” | The Associated Press
- ‘Culture of fear’: Immigrant students across the country have increasingly found themselves targets of bullying since the beginning of Trump’s second term, according to a new survey of high school principals. | The Guardian
A Kansas middle school will no longer assign Chromebooks to each student: Computers have had “a wonderful place in education,” the school’s principal said. But schools have “simply immersed students too much in technology.” | KWCH
A Florida middle school went into lockdown after an automated threat detection system was triggered by a clarinet. A student was walking in the hallway “holding a musical instrument as if it were a weapon.” | News6
Sign-up for the School (in)Security newsletter.
Get the most critical news and information about students’ rights, safety and well-being delivered straight to your inbox.
‘Got what he deserved’: A California teacher has filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against her school after she was suspended for a Facebook post calling right-wing political activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk a “propaganda-spewing racist misogynist” a day after he was murdered. | NBC News
- In Florida, two teachers have filed separate First Amendment lawsuits after they were punished for social media posts critical of Kirk after his death. | First Coast News
- Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott announced a partnership with Turning Point USA to create local chapters of the group at every high school campus in the state, vowing “meaningful disciplinary action” against any educators who stand in the way. | The Texas Tribune
- Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, will field questions from “young evangelicals, prominent religious leaders and figures across the political spectrum” during a live town hall Saturday on CBS News moderated by its new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss. | CBS News
- ICYMI: The Trump administration’s First Amendment crackdown in the wake of the activist’s violent death has left student free speech on even shakier ground. | The 74
Following a shakeup in its ranks by vaccine skeptic and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted to overturn a decades-long recommendation that newborn babies be immunized for hepatitis B — a policy credited with decimating the highly contagious virus in infants. | The 74
- A measles outbreak in South Carolina schools is accelerating, with some unvaccinated students in a second 21-day quarantine since the beginning of the academic year. | NBC News
A photo that circulated online depicted California high school students lying in the shape of a swastika on the grass of a football field. Chaos ensued. | The Guardian
‘It feels nasty. It’s gross.’: Controversy has come to a head at a California high school after an adult film producer rented out the campus gym for a raunchy livestream. “The first thing I see is a full-grown adult, an adult man wearing a baby costume and being fed milk from a baby bottle,” one student observer noted. | NBC San Diego
Two Texas teenagers allegedly conspired to carry out a school shooting at their high school but the plot was thwarted after classmates reported text messages with their plans to school police. “Don’t come to school on Monday,” one of the messages warned. | KHOU
ICYMI @The74
To Ease Civil Rights Backlog, McMahon Orders Back Staff She Tried to Fire
Nurses, Social Workers Face ‘Bad Situation’ Under Proposed Loan Limits
In New Mexico, Grandparents Caring for Grandkids Can Also Get Free Child Care Now(Co-published with The 19th)
Emotional Support
Did you use this article in your work?
We’d love to hear how The 74’s reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers. Tell us how
