An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 10 - Privacy Rights Of Students And Employees

 Informational privacy embodies the right against the unauthorized dissemination or misuse of sensitive and confidential information.  Autonomy privacy refers to the federal constitutional tradition of safeguarding certain intimate and personal decisions from government interference.

To prove an invasion of privacy under the California Constitution, a person must establish: (1) a legally protected privacy interest; (2) a reasonable expectation of privacy; and (3) a serious invasion of the privacy interest. Schools may justify an invasion of privacy by asserting legitimate competing or countervailing interests. If the interests asserted by the school justify the invasion of privacy, the intrusion does not violate the California Constitution. The constitutional right of privacy represents a potential limitation on any type of practice or procedure whereby a school attempts to gather or disseminate private information about an applicant, employee, or student. The actual scope of the limitations placed on the employer must be determined by a careful analysis of the interests involved in each particular case, and by a balancing of those interests. LCW Practice Advisor

In contrast to the California Constitution, the United States Constitution does not offer individual protection from action taken by private actors with respect to privacy rights. 1658 It only protects against government action. Therefore, employees and students at private schools will not have an actionable claim under the federal constitution for violations of privacy rights by the school.

B. C OMMON L AW T ORTS Employees and students may seek recovery for interference with their privacy rights under several common-law tort theories. The tort of invasion of privacy encompasses four different types of actions. These are:  Intrusion upon physical solitude or seclusion;  Public disclosure of private facts;  Placing someone in a false light in the public eye; 1659 and  Appropriation of name or likeness. The common law tort of invasion of privacy may be claimed only against a person in his or her individual (not official) capacity. Claims for the public disclosure of private facts and for false light have been treated similarly by the courts. To support a claim for one of these privacy violations, an individual must show that there was a public disclosure of private facts concerning him or her.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 373