The lawyer for a young man facing criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in a cheating plot at Hanover High School is suing the police and school officials of violating federal laws protecting students' privacy.

In a motion filed yesterday at Lebanon District Court, Norwich attorney Scott McGee asserts that more than 150 violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) occurred during the police investigation into the theft of final exams from the high school last June.

McGee says that high school officials handed over grades, class rosters and other protected information to the Hanover police without following federally mandated procedures, and that the police sought - albeit unsuccessfully - to obtain academic records without a subpoena, as required by law.

"For students, we're not going to let other folks, including law-enforcement folks, go through and get student information - for any reasons - unless they follow the law," McGee said in an interview yesterday. "In this case, clearly, the school was giving the information to police to assist in their investigation."

McGee has asked Lebanon District Court Judge Albert Cirone Jr. to dismiss the case against his client, Jeffrey Fairbrothers, 18, who has been charged as an accomplice to theft for his alleged role in the incident.

Catherine Nunlist, the school district's lawyer, said in an interview yesterday that state laws governing cooperation between school officials and police officers permitted the disclosures that had taken place. She also rejected McGee's argument that the disclosures were violations of federal law.

"The school does have a close relationship with the police department, and that is a very positive thing for the community and for the students," Nunlist said.

Hanover Police Prosecutor Christopher O'Connor and Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone did not return calls for comment yesterday. Hanover Police Capt. Frank Moran, the case's lead investigator, declined to comment.

In his motion, McGee states that the high school shared the following information with police in violation of federal law:

• Hanover High School Dean of Students Ron Eberhardt shared mid-term and final-exam grades with Detective Eric Bates for two "out of four kids that are suspects" at an early stage of the investigation, according to a police report.

• Eberhardt also shared information about specific students' relative academic performance on the compromised final exams. According to the police report on the investigation, Eberhardt told Moran whether suspected students' grades went up, down, or remained the same. "While Mr. Eberhardt didn't disclose specific final exam grades . . . disclosing information related to a student's academic performance is a FERPA violation nonetheless," the motion states.

• The police department obtained rosters of student names for three courses, which according to McGee's motion is "tantamount to 137 FERPA violations," a violation for each identified student. Information about students' classes and schedules is protected under the law, McGee said.

• The high school failed to keep a record of police requests for confidential student information, as required by law.

It is the last alleged violation that is most significant, McGee said in his motion, calling the failure to keep a detailed log of requests for protected records "a flagrant, ongoing violation of FERPA." The law states that schools "shall maintain a record" of "all individuals . . . agencies, or organizations which have requested or obtained access to a student's education records."

Nunlist acknowledged that Hanover police requested academic records for some of the students, including Fairbrothers. The district "refused to provide these records because they were protected by FERPA," Nunlist wrote in a Nov. 29 letter to McGee, but did not keep a record of the police request.

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