Jeffrey Myers v. Beaverton School District 48J

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Oregon grants Beaverton School District 48J’s motion to dismiss claims challenging the District’s digital hall pass system. The court holds that the plaintiff did not adequately allege substantive or procedural due process violations and concludes that FERPA and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment do not support the asserted claims on the allegations presented. The action is dismissed without prejudice and with leave to amend.

Holdings

1. A parent does not have a fundamental substantive due process right to control how a public school collects and uses student behavioral or movement data, or to receive notice of those practices, where the challenged conduct concerns what takes place inside the public school. The District's use of the digital hall pass system was rationally related to legitimate governmental interests and therefore did not violate substantive due process.
2. Plaintiff failed to state a procedural due process claim because he did not identify a constitutionally protected property or liberty interest in parental notice, consent, or an opt-out opportunity concerning the District's collection and use of digital hall pass data.
3. Oregon Revised Statutes section 336.187 does not create an express or implied private right of action, and plaintiff also failed to allege facts showing a failure to disclose information in either circumstance covered by the statute.
4. Plaintiff could not assert an Article I, section 9 privacy claim based on digital hall pass data concerning his child because the data implicated the students' personal privacy rights, not plaintiff's.
5. Plaintiff failed to state an Article I, section 10 claim because he identified no actionable violation of ORS sections 336.184 or 336.187, and neither statute supplied a private right of action.

Questions Presented

1. Whether plaintiff adequately pleaded a substantive due process claim based on a parent's asserted right to control the collection and use of a child's school movement and behavioral data.
2. Whether plaintiff adequately pleaded a procedural due process claim based on the District's failure to provide parental notice, consent, or an opt-out opportunity before collecting and using digital hall pass data.
3. Whether FERPA or the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment supplied an individually enforceable right or otherwise supported plaintiff's procedural due process claim.
4. Whether Oregon Revised Statutes section 336.187 created a private right of action and whether plaintiff alleged a violation of that statute.
5. Whether plaintiff could assert a personal privacy claim under Article I, section 9 of the Oregon Constitution based on data concerning his child.
6. Whether plaintiff stated an Article I, section 10 remedy-clause claim based on alleged violations of Oregon Revised Statutes sections 336.184 and 336.187.

Disposition

dismissed