Park Records

A bill that would exempt the identifying information of children involved in local recreation programs from the state's public records law is headed for a conference committee after the Senate declined to back it Thursday. As approved by the House last week, the measure would have exempted a child's name, age, date of birth, and other identifiable information from public record. The N.C. Press Association has asked that the name of the child remain a public record. The bill's Senate handler, Sen. Tony Foriest, D-Alamance, told his colleagues Thursday that he thought the House bill was a good one. "It was brought to our attention that we could even make it a better bill," he said. After the Senate session, Foriest said the final product would likely allow the name to remain a public record.
Rep. Alice Bordsen, D-Alamance, one of the sponsors of the bill in the House, said she was disappointed in the Senate's action. Bordsen said she wants to make sure that parents have control over the release of their children's name. The press association has argued that if the bill were to become law, access to names of children for photo captions could be in jeopardy. Because of the procedure that Bordsen and the other House sponsors used to pass the bill in the House, the recreation records bill never went to a Senate committee. (Barry Smith, FREEDOM NEWSPAPERS, 6/26/08).