Parent sues the Beaverton School District over their new digital hall pass system, concerned over data use. (Staff photo)

A Beaverton father has filed a lawsuit against the Beaverton School District to challenge a new digital hall pass system he says violates his rights as a parent and grants district staff access to an inordinate amount of student data.

In late January, Jeffrey Myers discovered this new digital hall pass system when his daughter — a student at Mountain View Middle School — told him about her feelings of anxiety and discomfort regarding her school’s new attendance process.

Myers alleges his daughter was especially concerned about the hall pass’ tracking system, timing how long a student is gone from class and “punishing” those who exceed the maximum five minutes allotted.

Myers’ lawsuit centers on the use of data regarding the system’s tracking of students, along with an alleged lack of involvement by parents in the decision to roll out the system — with Myers learning of it after it had already been implemented, he states.

The lawsuit was originally filed in Washington County Circuit Court where Myers’ request for temporary pause of the district’s use of the digital hall pass system was denied. The case was sent to federal court where, on July 3, Judge Adrienne Nelson denied a similar temporary request.

The Beaverton School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

‘Care, custody and control’

The lawsuit alleges that the Beaverton School District is in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Myers argues that the amendment guarantees freedom regarding interest in the “the care, custody and control of their children and a procedural due process right not to be deprived of that interest without adequate notice and opportunity to respond.”

The attendance system tracks students’ location and frequency of hall pass use, tracking bathroom use, going to the health office or to their locker and time away from the classroom. Before leaving the classroom, students must file a request on their computers that their teacher has to then approve.

“The data collected through this system is stored indefinitely and made visible to a broad range of District employees — far beyond those with a direct or legitimate educational interest in the student,” with roughly 154 staff members across the district having access to his daughter’s hall pass data, according to the lawsuit.

Myers argues the level of widespread data access is “‘inconsistent’ with the district’s claim that only staff ‘serving the student’ are able to view such data,” raising concerns regarding the district’s level of transparency with the parents whose children it serves.

According to Myers, while the district has claimed that no formal consequences have been given for exceeding the time limit, training slides shown to students states, “You will have a timer while you are gone, if you are gone too long there will be consequences.”

According to the lawsuit filed, “the district justified its actions by asserting that the digital hall pass is merely a digitized version of an existing analog (paper) attendance process.” However, Myers claims in the lawsuit that unlike the traditional analog process, DHP can be used to monitor students behavior and flag those that staff feel are in need of an intervention.

All this, without “parental awareness or approval” or a chance to opt out, the lawsuit alleges.

Save Oregon Schools

Myers is a Beaverton resident who is no stranger to the court process when it comes to local schools.

In 2022 Myers created the advocacy group Save Oregon Schools, LLC in order to provide “a bit of snarky humor” and “objective research and news to help equip parents, guardians, and community members with the information necessary to make informed decisions and advocate.”

A year later in 2023, Myers ran for general election for the Beaverton School District school board Zone 6 but lost to Justice Rajee.

Myers in April also filed for a review of government actions against the Oregon Department of Education for taking too long to reconsider his complaint on the Beaverton School District’s approval of a curriculum that had not yet been created. A motion is pending that, if approved, would direct ODE to issue a ruling on his appeal.

Less than a week later, he submitted another review of government actions in Marion County Circuit Court against Gov. Tina Kotek’s office, alleging public records he received were not complete and improperly redacted. 

A motion is pending that would grant him a refund and require the records be produced.