My son attends the public school in our town, He has many problems including adhd. I belong to a volunteer agency in my towm. Today I found ou that my son was the topic yesterday at a function of this volunteer agency. A family member of one of our volunteers is employed by the school. She decided to discuss my son's behavior with her daughter who then made numerous negative comments about my son. Can a school employee discuss this stuff? Is there ant liabe or slander?

It's only slander if the stuff that was said about your son is NOT true.

Is that the case?

I don't know where you live, but here in Ontario, we have something called the Privacy Act, which applies to schools.

Basically, the LAW says that they can't go around doing what you describe.

But, since you did not indicate where you live, it might be acceptable, it might not. You should check to see if your province/state has any kind of privacy laws?

It also depends on what capacity the person is employed in and whether what she told her daughter was confidential information. Lets say this women told her daughter things that were not public knowledge but in your son's file which she had access to. In such a case, you might have an action against the school district for misconduct.

On the other hand, lets say all she mentioned was behavior that she observed in the school that was done in public. In that case, there is nothing you can do. People can talk if they want to.

This is a grey area. As far as discussing your son's behavior, if it's overt behavior exhibited publicly within the school, then generally it's fair game. It needs to be understood that your son will ultimately be held responsible for his conduct, ADHD or not. Now, if this school employee attempts to diagnose a specific condition or prescribe a specific treatment and it's not in her professional capacity to do so (you didn't state in what capacity she's employed by the school district), then she may be crossing the line and could be legally liable for such statements.

Is there anyone at school you can talk to? If nothing else, it may ease you and let the other person know how you feel about the employee discussing your son. I'd start with the principal and let them make the judgement call on right or wrong. Hope this helps.