Wayne Rotan, Superintendent of GRISD, at the last board meeting had some videos shown (which we did videotape and can continue to do so according to the AG office) and when we asked for a copy of them we were told

"...get an estimate of how much time it will take to fix the video for public viewing because of the FERPA laws. WE will get you an estimate of time and how much it will cost sometime after..."

I thought to myself, we have been down this road before. I recall having a conversation with Wayne Rotan in his office about this specific matter and maybe he shouldn't be showing videos at public board meetings that he has to get modified to follow the law because I am there recording them and I am not editing them for any law as I recorded it in the public view at a public board meeting that follows the open meetings act.

I decided to get input from the AG office so I gave them a call and talked to one of their attorneys. It is not illegal for Mr. Rotan to display these videos at the board meetings that are not edited for FERPA according to them and this is a federal law so any changes would have to come through congress (Chet Edwards) to specifically prohibit a school from displaying your childs face in a video that the school uses for propaganda at a board meeting unless they have your explicit permission as is with the public consumption requests. Of course if Mr. Rotan wanted to comply with the SPIRIT of the law, he could do so and have the videos edited for FERPA before showing them to the public where we record them.

I decided to shoot Mr. Rotan an email telling him I realize he is not violating the law but he should be in the compliance with the spirit of the law and I really think he should stop showing videos that he could not share as is with the public.