Miller Elementary in the Santa Maria-Benita School District was cleaning out a storge room over the winter break and ended up throwing boxes of files from students who were applying for assisted lunch. These included the financial records for the families. The records were discovered by a woman throwing out some trash. She rep0rted the incident to the news.

I will refrain from going over the problems with leaving things in the dumpster since we have written about it so many times before. What is more interesting to me is how this all happened.

From the reports the financial records from students were left in boxes right next to boxes of textbooks. They were obviously not stored very securely. They were not locked up with other important files. It makes sense why the people cleaning the room thought that they were of little import and could be left in the trash.

Documents with personal information should be handled with care from creation through shredding.  Basic security is keeping them locked up. Physical access should only be provided with people who need to see the student files and their personal information.

An unlocked room of documents is a hidden threat. An employee could go into the room and take files from the middle of the shelves. It is unlikely that they would ever be missed. They information could be stolen with impunity.

The bottom line is to set aside all important documents. Clearly label them so mistakes are not made. Put them in a locked room or file cabinet. Give access only to those who truly need it.