GPAs mistakenly sent to parents, students

SANFORD, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Thousands of students at a Seminole County high school had private information leaked in an text alert, according to a  spokesperson for for school district.  The GPAs of more than 4,100 current and former students were exposed by an athletic coach.

Seminole County Public Schools says on July 27,  the athletic director at Seminole High School in Sanford sent coaches an email with the wrong file attachment to verify sport eligibility.  Then, an athletic coach mistakenly forwarded the file of thousands of GPAs to parents and some students on his team.

Hundreds of parents got the document via a computer-based text alert system, usually reserved for announcing things like rain delays or game changes.  The district says no phone or Social Security numbers, nor addresses, were sent out, and they immediately recalled and deleted messages and called parents.

"At the end of the day, it was simple human error. It was simply adding the wrong attachment to an email and clicking send. It can happen that quick," said Michael Lawrence with Seminole County Public Schools .

The district say they have already changed policy to where coaches have to go to a central location to access the database and verify GPAs.