Attacks on superintendent are unjustified

By Stephen G. Hermans,
Complete 2001 Editorial Archives
Complete 2000 Editorial Archives

I am the attorney who represented SAU 16 and the other defendants in the Knight case. I send this letter to respond to the unjustified criticism of Superintendent Hanson which has appeared in this newspaper.

The important facts are these:

From May through August 1999 Mr. Knight made various requests to examine the school's Internet history log files.

In August 1999 Superintendent Hanson obtained an opinion from special legal counsel stating the schools would violate federal law (the Electronic Communications Privacy Act) if the schools revealed the Internet history log files to Mr. Knight. Superintendent Hanson then informed Mr. Knight that the schools would not allow him to examine the Internet history log files for that reason.

Approximately three months after Superintendent Hanson so informed Mr. Knight and approximately six months before Mr. Knight filed his lawsuit, the technology personnel at the Exeter Region Cooperative School District (ERCSD), who monitor Internet use, altered the settings on the computer servers so that the Internet history log files would only cover the most recent five weeks of activity. This was done because the volume of Internet history had increased enormously and the servers could only store a limited amount of information.

Mr. Knight filed his suit in June 2000, at about the end of the 1999-2000 school year. When the 2000-2001 school year commenced, the ERCSD technology personnel once again altered the settings on the servers. This time they altered the settings so that all Internet activity from the start of the 2000-2001 school year would be retained. This was done because of Mr. Knight's suit and so that, if he prevailed, the files would not contain only five weeks of activity, but would contain activity dating back to the start of the school year.

When Mr. Knight's case was tried the issue of the period of time covered by the files was not discussed. Neither Mr. Knight's lawyer nor I asked Superintendent Hanson or the other ERCSD witness any questions about the period of time then covered by the Internet history log files. I did not ask any such questions because I did not believe the period of time was relevant to the issue to be decided by the court. The issue to be decided by the court was whether the Internet history of files were "public records" subject to inspection under the state right to know law and the federal law referred to above. Also, I knew that the volume of data in the files was enormous. (As it turned out the volume of data eventually released to Mr. Knight was equal to approximately 147,000 pages and was more than double the volume of data which existed in the Internet history log files as of the date of his initial request.)

After the judge decided that the Internet history log files should be produced, ERCSD prepared and delivered to Mr. Knight a disk containing the information he requested covering the period of time back to the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year. As stated above, this disk contained the equivalent of 147,000 pages of information and was more than double the volume of the files as they existed as of the date of his initial request.

The judge disagreed with me on the relevance of the period of time covered by the files. Her opinion counts, not mine. She also made the incorrect finding that files were destroyed after Mr. Knight filed his suit and because he filed his suit. I regret that I was unable to convince her otherwise.

The attacks on Superintendent Hanson are uninformed and unjustified. His decisions and other actions in this matter were in no way deceitful or dishonest. He is a man of integrity who has been unfairly maligned. As a parent with three children in the Exeter schools, and as a taxpayer, I feel fortunate to have Superintendent Hanson as our Superintendent of Schools.

Stephen G. Hermans is an attorney who lives in Exeter.

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