To many who followed the swirl of controversy in Arlington last year over e-mails between two school employees and their battle with the superintendent, the whole saga smacked of a cheap whodunit novel, or even a soap opera, for all the alleged sordid secrets.
But it also offers a valuable lesson to public employees everywhere, some now say, on one important way to avoid trouble in today's workplace: Consider all e-mails public records.
"Everyone's had a wake-up call," said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. "The Arlington case has had implications across the state."
The case was still unfolding as of last week. A Middlesex Superior Court ruled last month that e-mails on the town's computer system are public records, upholding existing case law to that effect and paving the way for release of the e-mails between former Ottoson Middle School principal Stavroula Bouris and computer teacher Chuck Coughlin. But the e-mails remained sealed pending a court review of a request for an emergency stay of that decision, filed by an attorney for Bouris and Coughlin, who were dismissed last summer for their allegedly inappropriate relationship and for allegedly forging an e-mail from Superintendent Nate Levenson.
The attorney, Frank Mondano, is contesting the dismissals and the way that e-mail and others between Bouris and Coughlin - which have been said to contain alleged sexual references and suggest a romantic relationship between the two - were monitored and pulled from the School Department's computer system.
Bouris's firing in particular has not sat well with the principal's supporters, who considered it an underhanded attack after Levenson was unsuccessful in terminating her contract last spring. The e-mail exchanges between Bouris and Coughlin came to light after an unnamed school employee, whose job entailed monitoring the computer system, presented Levenson with copies of the e-mails.
The case weighs the public's right to know against possible intrusion of privacy. But, as the ruling stated, School Department employees are required to read and sign an acceptable-use policy acknowledging that e-mail messages are public records and that employees should not expect them to be kept personal or confidential.
Businesses, too, are increasingly monitoring e-mail for the purpose of ensuring productivity and avoiding legal issues. A 2005 survey by the American Management Association found that more than half of the employers polled review and retain e-mail messages.
Most school districts in this state have had a comprehensive acceptable-use policy in place for years, said Koocher at the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, which has a model policy on its website.
The key to the policy is that employees should not use e-mail for personal matters, he said. But he says it is not always a straightforward issue, particularly with inappropriate images or language that may remain in one's hard drive after being deleted. "You can't always control the e-mails people send to you," he said.
As the case continued last week, Arlington School Committee members have been working with town officials to review existing policies on acceptable use of e-mail in the workplace. Effective July 1 of last year, the School Department and town have merged their information technology departments for efficiency and to share services. The trend follows other town and school operations consolidating their business offices, though municipal and school associations have not kept count of such mergers.
"I'd have to say it's been a great move," said Annie Lacourt, chairwoman of the Arlington Board of Selectmen. She said the streamlining may achieve about $50,000 in savings, which can be reinvested in the schools.
The plan to merge IT operations predated Bouris's and Coughlin's dismissals. Nonetheless, Lacourt said, the case has heightened awareness of appropriate use of e-mail.
"Unless you're dealing with technology day in and day out, most people do not take it as seriously as they should," she said.
Lacourt, who works as an IT manager for a nonprofit organization, said she reminds her staff not to expect privacy in their e-mail and to try to use e-mail only for things that are work-related. She declined to comment specifically on the Bouris-Coughlin case.
Mondano did not return several calls for comment on the case. He sought the emergency stay after Middlesex Superior Court Judge Wendie I. Gershengorn on Dec. 14 dismissed the former employees' motion to keep the e-mails out of public view. The judge wrote: "Regardless of the extent of any invasion of the plaintiff's privacy occasioned by disclosure of the e-mails, the public's right to know casts more weight on the other side of the fulcrum."
Both sides of that fulcrum were curious to see what happens next.
"We will abide by whatever court decision is made," said Susan Lovelace, chairwoman of the Arlington School Committee. She said the district has not released the e-mails, adding both Bouris and Coughlin also have filed for arbitration. Coughlin was to have an arbitration hearing last week.
The School Committee is fighting the former employees' appeals.
