The Family Educational and Privacy Act (FERPA) is intended to protect confidential information about students. While not mentioning the two boys by name involved in the altercation on Feb. 15, given the number of witnesses and the email sent to parents, their identity is certainly out in the public domain. Additionally the information that one of them might have written a fictional story about a school shooting will further follow them when they return to school, despite it not being credible. While it is certainly appropriate for the school to notify parents that a possible threat was investigated and found not credible, there was no justifiable reason to link it to the two students involved in the altercation. Even if the school concluded that their response did not violate actual FERPA regulations, it certainly violated the spirit of those regulations. Conflicts occur daily in schools. Parents have a right to have their child’s privacy protected.