Huntley Middle School staff accidentally sent out personal info of dozens of students Monday

DeKALB - Huntley Middle School inadvertently sent out personal information of dozens of students to between 700 and 800 people on Monday in an email about required health examinations.

A spreadsheet about truancy that included the personal information of 59 students and their parents or guardians was one of five attachments sent to Huntley parents at 4:31 p.m. Monday.

The email included addresses and phone numbers for the nearly five dozen students along with notes on their attendance record or if they'd transferred.

At 5:40 p.m., HMS Principal Amonaquenette Parker sent an email apologizing for the "unfortunate incident."

"We apologize for our oversight and any stress that this may have caused," the email said. "Please delete the email as soon as possible and refrain from sharing this personal data. If you have any questions or concerns, please call or email me tomorrow."

Interim Superintendent Griff Powell said in addition to the email sent by Parker informing parents of the mistake, a second email will go out later today.

"We asked our tech if there was a way to delete the attachment after we sent that, but you know and I know the answer," Powell said. "Once you attach something, you can't erase it once you press send. It was a very unfortunate mistake. All we can do is apologize and make sure it never happens again."

Powell said due to how recently it happened no firm actions are in place yet, though there was a talk with principals about best practices.

"Can you 100% guarantee human errors won't occur? No," Powell said. "We just have to know before you press send to check all attachments. It's that simple. Open each one before you send. I try to do that with everything I send out."