County PTA Delegates Resolution Against CRC

It must be tough being the Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum. Your moral sense is so refined, you are so sure that your way of life is better than everyone else's, but for some reason other people don't seem to agree. The CRC keeps trying to spread its ... superiority ... through our county, and people keep not buying it.

Like, remember that smart idea they had, to send letters to all the families of kids at the schools where the new sex-ed program was going to be piloted?

Here's the result of that, a resolution passed this month by the Montgomery County Council of PTA's Delegates -- not the executive board, but the Delegates Assembly, consisting of two representatives from every school in the county, plus all the PTA Presidents, plus all of the county officers and the Executive Board:

WHEREAS each school year the local PTA units of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA) typically compile and publish student directories that include personal and potentially sensitive information such as the names, street addresses, e-mail and telephone numbers of students whose parents have agreed to have such information included, and

WHEREAS by common knowledge and accepted practice these directories are intended exclusively for the private use of the PTA and the local PTA communities to facilitate communication within their communities, and are not intended to be used for any other purpose, and

WHEREAS the president of an organization calling itself the Citizens for Responsible Curriculum (CRC) has privately conceded to MCCPTA officers that CRC obtained copies of selected student directories and used the information in these directories to develop a mailing list for a purpose inconsistent with the intended or appropriate use of the directories, and

WHEREAS the misuse of student directories by CRC has caused substantial concern among parents within the affected communities, and

WHEREAS the PTAs in the affected communities are justifiably concerned that fears about potential future misuse of student directories could lead parents to withhold student directory information, thereby impairing a critical PTA asset,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the MCCPTA Delegate Assembly strongly believes that the CRC should respond promptly and completely to all questions and concerns raised by local PTA units about the sources and intended uses of their student directory information, specifically identifying any instances in which this information may have already been sold or otherwise made available to another individual or entity, and

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the MCCPTA Delegate Assembly strongly believes that the CRC should agree in writing to cease using information obtained from PTA student directories, and to return to the affected PTAs all copies of their directory information now in the possession of CRC, in whatever form the information may exist, or certifying in writing that this information has been destroyed, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the MCCPTA Delegate strongly believes that the CRC should concede in writing that its use of student directory information was inappropriate and agree that it will refrain from any future use of PTA student directory information.