Some Schools Released List of Addresses

Administrators for at least six Orange County high schools have routinely given confidential lists of students’ home addresses to commercial vendors in apparent violation of state education codes and, in some cases, the districts’ policies.

The practice involves companies that sell class rings and other school memorabilia; the firms then use the mailing lists to send marketing and promotional material to students’ homes.

In some cases, the lists were handed out by mid-level administrators without the knowledge of top district officials, the officials said.

Yet some schools also provided the lists under contracts that give vendors exclusive access to students.

“It’s part of the agreement,” said Skip Moyer, activities director for Huntington Beach High School, which provided a list to Jostens, one of the nation’s top school-memorabilia dealers with $103.9 million in sales last year. “They’re getting a label to put on a flier.”

Two other firms--Herff Jones of Indianapolis and Epicenter Recognition Inc. of Dana Point--also sought lists from schools. Epicenter was unsuccessful, a company official said. It was unclear whether Herff Jones obtained lists from Orange County schools.

Jostens has the bulk of the school contracts in the area. Mike Westra, a regional manager for Minneapolis-based Jostens, described the practice as common.

“I know there are issues in education about giving students’ names out,” Westra said. “We never do it without the full consent of the school and district.”

Yet the State Education Code bars schools from releasing students’ names or addresses to any “private, profit-making entity,” said Roger Wolfertz, staff attorney for the state Department of Education.

“The pupil record is confidential,” he said. “It cannot be given to anyone without parental consent.”

Wolfertz said, however, that he was not aware of civil or criminal penalties for violating the section of the code governing student records.

In the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, activities directors at Trabuco Hills and El Toro high schools turned over lists to Jostens.

“They ask for labels and we give them labels,” El Toro Activities Director Kathryn Scheidler said.

Trabuco Hills Activities Director Linda Kimble said that “if [the vendor] wants a list, we give them a list.”

Yet to do so violates district policy, Supt. Peter Hartman said.

“It shouldn’t have happened that way,” Hartman said, adding that the administrators had been told to discontinue the practice. “We explained to them the district policy that we don’t provide names and addresses to vendors. These are people who thought they were doing the right thing. They did not knowingly violate state law.”

Hartman said no disciplinary action is planned.

Revelations about the practice cropped up as Saddleback Valley announced plans earlier this week to shelve the way it has dealt with vendors amid complaints that granting exclusive contracts drove up the costs for students while subsidizing free gifts for administrators and financial rewards for schools.

Instead, the district will let three firms vie for students’ business.

Despite the apparent code violation--and the questions the practice raises about student privacy and safety--few parents were overly concerned.

“I’d prefer [the vendors] pass it out to the kids, but they’re trying to get it to the parents,” said Karen Packer, mother of an El Toro High School student. “Most parents just accept that it’s coming in the mail.”

Some parents were less sanguine.

“It would bother me if a mailing list is given by the school to a company for profit,” said Anne Thacher, mother of two students at Aliso Niguel High School, which does not appear to provide lists to vendors. “I have a fundamental problem with that.”

Related practices, in which school districts allow for-profit firms to conduct market research on students, prompted U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) to introduce federal legislation in September that would require parental approval before schools release any information about students to their commercial partners.

“You see more and more the schools are engaged in commercial relationships, and here they’re basically selling the student body as a commercial product,” Miller said.

He linked the release of the mailing addresses with other recent commercial forays into schools, such as the granting of exclusive soft drink and computer contracts.

“Instead of [parents] sitting talking about whether they can afford a graduation ring or want one, you now have to deal with marketers trying to sell you this stuff,” he said. “They’re really usurping the role of the parents.”

The actions also could invade the privacy of some families who do not want their addresses passed on to third parties, he said.

It was unclear how widespread the practice is.

High schools in Irvine and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District said they do not provide vendors with the lists.

In Placentia-Yorba Linda, students order class rings on campus during an assembly, said David Verdugo, director of secondary education. District officials notify parents about the process, and students can then choose to provide personal information directly to the vendor.

“It is certainly not a habit we have made here,” Verdugo said. “Typically, the vendors understand the privacy issues.”

But administrators from San Clemente, Laguna Beach and Capistrano Valley all provide lists to Jostens, school officials said.

“I’m not familiar with the laws,” said Heather Siegel, San Clemente High School activities director.

Jim Howland, Jostens representative for south Orange County, said the lists are not distributed outside the company.

“It’s pretty much common courtesy,” he said. “They’re not duplicated, they’re not sold. They’re used for what’s intended.”

He said the firm does two mailings a year.

“We need to communicate with the parents and the way to do it is via mail,” he said. “The school has been kind enough to furnish us with the mailing information. . . . As the exclusive vendor, we’re entitled to a set of mailing labels.”

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Times correspondents Jasmine Lee, Mathis Winkler and Andre Briscoe and Times staff writer Nona Yates contributed to this report.