CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Jefferson County Schools (JCS) has addressed a situation stemming from the inadvertent sharing of personal employee information as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from a local paper. The reporter making the request was the only recipient of the information and has claimed that he did not share it with anyone else. All JCS employees were affected. Superintendent Dr. Bondy Shay Gibson-Learn took responsibility and has already begun taking steps to protect staff. She sent the below email to all staff Wednesday afternoon:
Dear JCS Staff
I am writing to you right now to inform you of an incident involving your personal information. Jefferson County Schools received a Freedom of Information Act request from the reporter Tim Cook of the Spirit of Jefferson asking for staff salary information. A report was generated from the WVEIS system. Unfortunately, the report was not reviewed by the employee responding to the request and we discovered after the fact that your social security number was included along with your salary information and date of birth.
This is an egregious error on our part. You trust us with your information and to provide you with support and safety. We failed to do that, and we will certainly hold ourselves accountable for that error. At this point, Mr. Cook is the only individual that has received this information and he has indicated that he has not shared any of the information. Therefore, we do not have any reason to believe that you are at risk.
However, in an abundance of caution, we will be providing identity theft insurance for all Jefferson County Schools' employees at no cost to you. Please know that your safety and wellbeing is of the utmost importance to Jefferson County Schools. During times that are already difficult, adding one more distraction to your plate is unacceptable. When we do make a mistake and cause harm/worry, we have the responsibility to make it right. You have my personal apology and commitment to address this issue so that we do not have such a breach again.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. My contact information is below. Again, my apologies for the distraction from the important work of serving children and thank you for the grace to make it right.
Bondy Shay Gibson-Learn, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Jefferson County Schools