file photo by Boyd Loving
JUNE 19, 2015, 5:26 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015, 5:26 PM
BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A state Superior Court judge has ruled that a dozen Bergen County school districts were within their rights to redact details of their school security drills before turning drill records over to a TV station probing alleged irregularities.
Superior Court Judge Robert P. Contillo wrote in the decision that the safety and security concerns voiced by the districts outweighed plaintiff WNBC-TV’s interest in receiving un-redacted records. The redactions, he wrote, which varied district-to-district but generally blacked out the date, time, and length of the drills, were “necessary to protect defendants’ interest in maintaining the safety and integrity of the school community.”
“Any other result would risk this information falling into the wrong hands and being of use in an effort to cause harm,” he wrote.
Donald Doherty, attorney for plaintiff WNBC-TV, was disappointed by the June 4 ruling, which he said didn’t make sense given that other districts freely gave the network the information.
“If it was such a security risk, you’d have thought everybody would have thought [so],” he said. “But I’m not the judge.”
Doherty said he doesn’t plan to appeal the decision, but that that “doesn’t mean we think the judge is right.”
Named in the station’s Feb. 20 suit were the boards of education in Allendale, Bergenfield, Englewood Cliffs, Hillsdale, Oakland, Old Tappan, Ramapo-Indian Hills, Ramsey, River Vale, and Tenafly, as well as the Bergen County Technical and Special Services districts. Also named were those districts’ business administrators, who serve as public records custodians.
