BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Parish School System said a letter parents of students at Glasgow Middle received warning of stolen files containing private information was fraudulent but admitted there was a problem with a small number of paper student records last year.

The letter, obtained by the WBRZ Investigative Unit, purports that special needs students' documents were stolen. The documents were "confidential folders" with student information and went missing after being left unattended, the letter reported to parents. It contained a copy of a driver's license of a school system employee and suggested parents contact authorities.

Thursday, the school district said it appears a disgruntled former employee hid student records in May 2015, reported them as missing and then sent the letter to parents this year complete with a copy of a stolen driver's license. The license belonged to a teacher who had been the victim of identity theft. It's not clear how the license is related to the theft allegations. The matter is being investigated by authorities, a school system spokesperson said.

Several missing documents were recovered in another location of the school. It's not clear where the entire group of files is, though. However, the school district said it's unlikely information was stolen or left the campus.

"There is no evidence that the documents were removed from campus or were accessed by anyone who would not have had authorization to view them," district spokesperson Adonica Duggan told the WBRZ Investigative Unit.

Duggan said she was unsure of the status of the criminal investigation and was preparing for a school board meeting Thursday night unrelated to the inquiry. More information on the status of the investigation could be released Friday, she said. The name of the culprit was not revealed.
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