Who watches the watchers?

How confidential is your email?  If you work in the schools in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the answer may be "not very."

Emails sent by school board member John DeVincentis to a teacher in Mercer Island, Wash. in 2004-05 were released by a former school board member, Pat Gleason, to the local newspaper, the Steamboat Pilot & Today.  (Source: Steamboat Pilot & Today)  According to the newspaper, these emails

"were harshly critical of Cyndy Simms, a former Steamboat superintendent and the current superintendent in Mercer Island. In the e-mails, DeVincentis suggests ways to undermine Simms, including using aspects of her personal life. He also brags about lying to the Mercer Island School Board to get the board to hire Simms.

"He uses derogatory terms to refer to her and jokes about spitting on her and being in the throes of passion with her."

The emails have led to a recall petition and other harsh criticism.  But, how did the emails get into the hands of Pat Gleason?

"In a letter sent to the newspaper, Gleason said he had access to the DeVincentis’ e-mails as a School Board member. The e-mails were taken from DeVincentis’ school computer after he retired from the school district in 2005," the newspaper reports.  Gleason then suggests that since he identified himself as the source, any investigation is no longer needed.  Fortunately, the school board decided to investigate further.

You may believe that what DeVincentis did was really inappropriate.  But, I am even more outraged by what appears to be a policy or a gap in policy that allows school board members to read emails from other members.  I hope that they take significant steps to make sure that only people who need to see other people's emails have access to them.

(Thank you Leslie Graves, http://openrecords.wordpress.com, for telling me about this.)