I received a call from a concerned parent at North Miami Beach Senior High School, who got a robo-call from the Principal, Raymond L. Fontana. It appears that a box containing the Student Emergency Contact Cards were removed or stolen from the school office. According the concerned parent, Principal Fontana’s message was along the lines of, “Don’t worry your pretty little heads about it. I’m in control.”
WTF?
If Principal Fontana was in control, how did these cards get stolen (or removed?) in the first place? I’m just saying.
Parents at NMB Senior High should be concerned. The person or persons who stole these cards now have access to a wealth of information about each and every student at the school. Every card must list the student’s full name, address and phone number, the student’s SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, the student’s parents’ full names, addresses, phone numbers and employers, the student’s medical information, who is and isn’t allowed to take the student out of school, and the names and phone numbers of designated individuals who can be reached in case of emergency and the parents can’t be located.
Considering the exact same thing happened at nearby Norland Senior High just last month (http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21006099628580/ and http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21005814377691/), you would think security would have been tightened in all of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, right?
You’d be wrong.
I don’t know if this is a problem at other schools in the county, but I do know that at North Miami Beach Senior High School under Principal Raymond L. Fontana’s “leadership,” it has certainly not been addressed. If it had, maybe, just maybe, IT WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED AGAIN! HELLOOOOO!
What is even more disturbing is that this sensitive information on every single student who attends public school in Miami-Dade County is printed on index cards and stored in boxes instead of entered into a database accessible only to school administrators. These boxes sit on secretaries’ desks in the main office of the school, where anyone walking by can grab a card or the whole box.
Apparently, someone did.
If you’re the parent of a student at North Miami Beach Senior High School, though, you have nothing to worry about. You’re in good hands. Principal Fontana’s got it all under control.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
Once again, the “Teflon Don” of M-DCPS will emerge unscathed from this latest debacle. Who will he scape-goat this time?
Teflon Don? Love it!
Why don’t you just leave NMB alone? The students are happy. Just leave us alone. All you’re doing is stirring up drama that nobody wants. Come on now. Aren’t you a little too old for this silliness?
Silliness? Do you really think that stolen SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS amounts to silliness? If you think that’s a silly little thing, you obviously aren’t learning what’s important in life or getting the tools you’ll need to survive in the world once you graduate. I believe you inadvertently made my point with your comment. Hopefully, you’ll wise up in a few years if you’re fortunate (and intelligent) enough to get into a good college.
This story was reported by not only the Miami Herald, but by Channels 7 and 10. Are you going to ask the general managers of those news organizations if they’re “too old for this silliness?” I’m just saying.
Oh, and by the way, I scooped all of them by reporting this NEWS last night. None of them published it until this morning. Age (and wisdom) has its advantage.
This story just keeps getting bigger, as it should. Channel 4 just weighed in (http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/12/08/personal-info-theft-puts-students-and-parents-at-risk/) to “stir up drama that nobody wants.”
So, is Channel 4 also “a little too old for all this silliness, too?”
Gee, I dunno, Lavonna. If I were you, I’d be feeling pretty stupid right about now.
I’m just saying.
That’s our school for you. those cards are supposed to be there to benefit students in the case of an emergency now they are putting us in an emergency for the rest of our lives. And they have the nerve to ask us to fill out another one.
A few years back, I was advised that our health insurance company’s records had been compromised, and our family (as well as all other members) was offered a lifetime identity protection service at no charge. I think it would be prudent for the Miami-Dade County Public School Board to do the same for each and every student – not only at NMB, but for EVERY student who is registered at every school in the county. Apparently, the Student Emergency Contact Cards are at risk for being stolen and apparently this is an ongoing problem. I would suggest your parents contact your school board representative, Dr. Martin Karp, and request that this be done immediately. As long as your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS are in the hands of strangers, you will forever be at risk for identity theft. This is not to be taken lightly. As you mentioned, this could very well cause you huge problems with your credit rating for the rest of your life. I urge you to take action! Thanks for writing.
All of the parents and students should come together and have the school pay for identity thief protection for the next five years for all these students. Only because these cards hold what it takes now a days to be credit worthy, your social, date of birth, name and address. Income tax filing is around the corner. If any of those socials are used. The parents claiming their kids will then find themselves going through hell facing the IRS for them to prove your kids are your kids. I know I experienced that back in 2004. And as for Mr. Fontana, the secretaries and all personnel that work with theses stolen cards should be repremended harshly…
How about fired?
Smhh i refuse to fill out another one! They should all be FIRED!!
My English teacher laughed when she was given more emergency contact cards to give to us, & threw them away. I agree that everyone should be highly upset about this occurrence. I definitely don’t want to deal with bad credit ratings for the rest of my life just because some lazy secretaries couldn’t bring themselves to responsibly place our private information into a protected computer system where it belongs.
Most of your opinions are fouled by your emotions. Translating these contact cards electronically is a guaranteed anti-theft measure physically, but even though the electronic information is invulnerable to thieves, you should be wary of the tech savvy people waiting for this particular opportunity to arise on the web- imagine a virtual bank of SSN just waiting to be looted. I hope you’re all aware of the recent cyber crimes towards gaming companies, who are -more or less- “protected” against these infiltrations. They were just as easily broken as a needle through a tissue, and that’s it- you only need one small chip in the school’s firewall to get all the info.
The contact cards are best kept in their physical form. Instead of being tossed around like a stack of newspapers, the contact cards should have at least a few trustworthy supervisors watching over them, not a blithering fool- whom, I presume, was in charge of these documents.
You have made excellent points! Perhaps electronic records are equally as susceptible to theft in this day and age of tech savvy thieves. Maybe a better solution is for the school not to require that the more sensitive information, i.e., social security numbers, be provided on cards. I’m not a “techie” so I don’t have the answer, but if I were a student I would have every right to expect that my information would be secured. You sound much more intelligent than the people who are actually running the school. Have you considered a career in public administration? You might want to check that out.
As for your comment about my opinions being fouled by my emotions, I’m sorry you feel that way. I’ve been writing this column for a while, and my opinions, peppered by comments that are most definitely written with extreme emotion, are exactly the reason that my regular readers keep coming back. There are people who love my column and people who absolutely hate it (depending on whether or not they are the target of my wrath). I’m guessing more people are the former rather than the latter or I wouldn’t still be in business. (Figuratively, of course, since I don’t get paid to do this and I haven’t quit my day job just yet.)
Was a huge mistake made? Yes, there is no question about it. There are ways that this entire thing could have been avoided. But, as the saying goes, hind sight it is always 20/20.
Now that the situation has happened, everyone should be focused on protecting themselves, going down to the social security office to have their accounts watched.
Attacking and firing all personnel involved would be one of the most brainless, foolish, and obtuse decisions that the school board could make and that applies to anyone trying to get this in motion. That would only mess up the rest of the school year and cause more problems. I’m not saying that there should be no consequences, I am merely pointing out that removing the principal, administrators, secretaries and security personnel in the middle of the school year would leave the ‘temporary replacements’ in a whole lot of confusion and create a mess for the graduating students and disrupt the fluidity of school on a daily basis.
Mr. Fontana’s leadership has been superb for the time that he has been in charge. You cannot expect absolute perfection, after all, he is as human as the rest of us. Unless you want maniacal robots running the schools for our posterity and having all documentation on a computer (that can be more easily hacked and copied than physical documentation) as well as the very real possibility of a system crash that can wipe out scores of information, you have to see that making this a personal vendetta is the wrong way to go.
Stop focusing on revenge, because let’s face it, that’s what this spiteful article is really about. The thing to focus on would be how to find a good solution for the problem at hand.
When I suggested “firing” I may have been reacting to a comment in a sarcastic way. I’m not in the position to say who should and who should not be fired. That’s not my job. Hopefully, the School Board will investigate and make a determination as to where the blame lies and what should be the appropriate consequences.
I disagree that Mr. Fontana’s leadership has been superb. I do believe that at one time he was probably an excellent principal, but in the years that I have known him and had dealings with him (and that has been quite a few), I feel that some of his decisions have been questionable at best. I am speaking from a personal perspective and I do have a right to my opinion. It’s not so much revenge, as you suggest, but what I feel is a responsibility to see that a school which bears the name of North Miami Beach, a city in which I have lived for many years, is not a source of constant public humiliation for our community. You may, of course, disagree with my assessment, but I can assure you, most of the taxpaying residents of NMB tend to agree with my views.
You’re certainly right that “making a “blOg about it won’t help the students at all.” Helping students isn’t my job. Obviously the people whose job it is to do that have dropped the ball. And, for the record, writing this blog isn’t my “job” either. Luckily for the residents, business owners and stakeholders of North Miami Beach, it also isn’t my job to “Leave people business alone!” If it weren’t for bloggers like myself and others, who are intent on rooting out government corruption, fraud and plain old incompetence (yes, a public school is part of the government), the taxpayers who fund these institutions would have no idea what insanity ensues behind those four walls. You may be too young and immature to appreciate the terms “transparency” and “accountability,” but that doesn’t mean they aren’t serious issues for adults to be concerned about. I’d say it’s about time you “grow the hell up.”
Have a good day.