EPISD Lawyer: District Is Not Legally Liable For The Hacking
El Paso Independent School District trustees heard from concerned employees and parents at a Tuesday evening board meeting regarding the hacking situation that put more than 70,000 students and employees at risk for identity theft.
“You have hurt us enough already,” said one Franklin High School teacher during the public forum part of the meeting.
Two weeks ago hackers broke into the school district’s internal network, accessing thousands of Social Security numbers. The district alerted the community about the breach the day it found out about it and negotiated a deal with a credit monitoring company to offer a 50 percent discount on anti-identity-theft services. However, some in the community are still wondering why the district is not paying for those services.
Lucy Clarke, president of the El Paso Federation of Teachers, spoke about her own concerns.
“Members are definitely feeling the financial pinch of two or more years without a raise and are concerned about the cost of credit monitoring,” she said.
The school board’s attorney, Anthony Safi, explained the district is not legally liable for the hacking and is therefore limited in the options it can offer the community. “The district does not have any liability for what occurred due to the doctrine of governmental immunity,” Safi said. “Because there is no liability, to pay (for services) could very well be considered a gift of public funds, which is prohibited.”
District officials also talked about potential damage prevention at the meeting. The chief technology officer said his office is narrowing down the cost for a number of improvements to the district’s network security system, including the possibility of encrypting Social Security numbers.
