A newly-released report says a flaw in a state database that allowed public access to thousands of teachers’ Social Security numbers has been in place for a decade before a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter exposed it.
Republican Gov. Mike Parson condemned reporter Josh Renaud last fall for writing about the weakness, even though the paper refrained from doing so until after the state could fix it. Parson also said that the Missouri State Highway Patrol would conduct an investigation, which culminated in a 158-page report that was released Monday.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that DESE spokeswoman Mallory McGowin told the patrol that Renaud hadn’t accessed “anything that was not publicly available, nor was he in a place he should not have been.”
