COLUMBUS — An attorney for news media organizations, including WHIO-TV, asked the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday to order the release the academic records of Connor Betts, who killed nine people and wounded 27 others on Aug. 4, 2019, in Dayton’s Oregon District.
After the shooting, WHIO-TV and other media organizations sought release of Betts’ records from the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Local School District, where he attended, in an effort to determine if there were any so-called red flags that might have indicated whether he would be involved in any violent behavior. When the school district refused to release the records, the lawsuit began, seeking a court order to make the records public.
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Erin Rhinehart, an attorney for the media organizations, told the court in oral arguments that the records belong to the public and should be released. Rhinehart further argued that any right to privacy afforded to Betts under state law expired upon his death.
In an interview with News Center 7, Rhinehart said, “The State Department of Education for decades has consistently advised and said when an adult student dies the confidentiality protections terminate.”
An attorney for the school district, Tabitha Justice, said there are other laws on the books that do prohibit release of that same information, even after the student is no longer in a condition to grant permission for release, including death.
“Students records have their own statutory protection,” Justice said, “and it is not a matter of the individual’s right of privacy in total. It is a matter of a statute that districts must protect these records. That is what they are doing and why they are doing it.”
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined the case on the side of the news media. He told News Center 7 he also believes the records belong to the public and should be released.
He said he sees value in news organizations trying to answer some difficult questions in the Oregon District shooter case. Those include what might have prompted the violent outburst that took so many lives and what motivated Betts or any other mass shooter to open fire on a defenseless crowd of strangers.
“How do they travel this journey in such a horrific act against people who have no grudge against them and they don’t even know them. And so every clue to try to figure out what is going on here is so critical. People have a right to know that,” Yost said.
A decision from the Ohio Supreme Court is expected by the end of the year.