US colleges turn over student records to FBI
28 September
SACRAMENTO -- Investigators are reviewing the records of students at colleges and universities across the United States as they probe the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, said education officials.
Several of California's state college campuses have received requests to turn over certain records, officials said. Most were for specific students.
However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asked for a list of all foreign students attending Fresno State University, said Ms Colleen Bentley-Adler, spokesman for the 23-campus California State University system.
'We're cooperating with the FBI and turning over the records', she said on Thursday.
At least four Utah colleges have turned over records of some aviation and foreign students. College administrators there said the FBI requested data on specific students, including names, addresses, birth dates and confirmation of attendance.
Schools are generally barred from releasing students' records without their written permission. But many in this instance are turning over the information without protest, based on a US Department of Education interpretation of the 1974 privacy law.
Department spokesman Lindsey Kozberg said the agency is advising schools they can release the information under a "health or safety emergency" exemption. The exception is believed to have been used only once before, after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal bombing.
She and education officials declined to provide details or names of students whose records are being studied. A spokesman at FBI headquarters in Washington refused to comment.
At least four California students are being held as material witnesses because they are believed to have ties to three hijackers who lived in San Diego prior to helping fly a commercial jetliner into the Pentagon. -- AP |
