CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A judge says the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill does not have to release the names of students and employees that its administrative procedures determined were responsible for sex offenses.
Local media outlets report Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour issued a ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by area media outlets in an attempt to get the information from UNC.
Baddour ruled that the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which allows some disclosure of student records in such cases, pre-empts the public records law, which would mandate it in every case.
Last September, reporters for the UNC student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel made a public information request for the records. The school said the records were protected by the federal act Baddour cited.
