Ohio’s Supreme Court ruled against media organizations seeking school records belonging to Connor Betts, who was shot and killed by police after killing nine people and injuring another 27 in Dayton in 2019.
The court ruled 6-1 Thursday in the public records lawsuit. The request by a handful of media outlets would violate the Ohio Student Privacy Act, the court ruled.
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Former classmates of Betts had said he was suspended for making “hit lists” of classmates and on a separate occasion making a list of female classmates he wanted to sexually assault, according to Cleveland.com.
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The media outlets, which included CNN, The New York Times, The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Dayton Daily News, argued federal student privacy law did not apply to former students. Betts graduated in 2013 and federal officials have historically applied the law as no longer effective for students who have died.
However, the court ruled the state law goes further, and protects the secrecy of student records after death.
“The records of a person who attended a public school can be disclosed only with the consent of the student, if that student is 18 years of age or older. If that student is deceased, he is no longer available to grant consent,” Justice Melody Stewart wrote in the majority opinion.
In a dissent, Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote the state law’s use of present tense implies it only applies to current students, according to Cleveland.com.
Monica Nieporte, president and executive director of the Ohio News Media Association, said in a statement that the group was “very disappointed” in the ruling.
“We have supported the efforts of journalists to obtain these records primarily because it would have helped to determine what actions the school system did or did not take to address any red flags that occurred with this student’s behavior in the years leading up to the mass shooting,” she said.