{"id":592894,"date":"2026-09-07T12:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/592894\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T12:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:38:12","slug":"investigation-found-starship-staff-wrongly-shared-sensitive-medical-records-with-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/592894\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation found Starship staff wrongly shared sensitive medical records with school"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sensitive information was used by staff at the boy\u2019s first school to discriminate against the mother and son<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The school and involved staff denied those claims. <\/p>\n

However, the HRRT ruled staff formed prejudicial views of the pair after obtaining the records, treating them differently and less sympathetically than other families, causing humiliation, loss of dignity and harm.<\/p>\n

Information in the records included details of a traumatic pregnancy, the boy\u2019s extreme premature birth and the mother\u2019s past sex work and methamphetamine use before she knew she was pregnant. <\/p>\n

It also contained later paediatric assessments showing the child was developing well and had been discharged from specialist care. <\/p>\n

\"InIn April, a Human Rights Review Tribunal found an Auckland primary school unlawfully collected and misused highly sensitive medical information about a mother and her son, shaping how they were poorly treated by the staff. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n

Talking to the Herald in April, the mother said knowing the school held the medical files had been distressing. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something that you\u2019d ever want the people at the school that your child\u2019s going to, to find out, especially because it\u2019s not current.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s not who I am now. It\u2019s not who I was when he first started school. It was who I was before I became a mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tribunal concluded the mother and child\u2019s discriminatory treatment flowed after the medical records were obtained.<\/p>\n

A special educational needs co-ordinator (Senco), who was a senior teacher, concluded the mother \u201cwas dangerous\u201d and her son\u2019s \u201cdevelopmental issues were attributable to her drug use\u201d, making them \u201cless deserving of empathy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tribunal pointed to incidents the boy endured, including being excluded from class and the playground, having his school hours reduced, and a tantrum where he was videoed by two staff instead of being offered comfort.<\/p>\n

A distressing school bus trip was also cited.<\/p>\n

On the return leg, the mother \u2013 while suffering a broken arm \u2013 was left alone to deal with the boy lashing out uncontrollably because of hunger and overstimulation. <\/p>\n

The tribunal awarded the mother and son $29,100 in damages.<\/p>\n

It also permanently suppressed the identities of the mother, child, school and its staff to protect the boy from future discrimination. <\/p>\n

With the school unnamed, the mother was left feeling justice was incomplete.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe mother learned how her medical files were shared in late 2019 when she received a formal apology from the ADHB. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n

When the mother realised the school had her sensitive records, she complained to ADHB, sparking an investigation.<\/p>\n

She learned of the investigation and its findings when she received a formal apology in late 2019. <\/p>\n

Initially, she was not given the report despite asking for a copy. When she finally viewed its contents, she was struck by how easily the medical records had been obtained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt did surprise me. I didn\u2019t realise they\u2019d taken original copies of documents. It was quite shocking to know that that was able to happen and that it was that easy for them to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t just accidentally \u2013 they gave the paperwork to the staff. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Starship staff] actually sought out the paperwork … those weren\u2019t things they could just accidentally hand over.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was also surprised by how many people had handled her family\u2019s information.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was just one nurse, but then to find out it was more, it was quite shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mother believes it took around two years to receive the ADHB investigation report and that the delay lasted until the board realised she wasn\u2019t going to take legal action against it.<\/p>\n

The investigation traced records and concluded it was more likely than not the documents had been disclosed to the school alongside other information. <\/p>\n

The final report stated the material \u201cshould not have been provided to an external person or organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Herald sought the full investigation report in an Official Information Act request to Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, with questions on what disciplinary or procedural changes followed.<\/p>\n

Health NZ rejected the request, citing the family\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n

It did confirm no records were permanently lost, that it holds no record of a similar breach elsewhere within Starship Community and that staff completed privacy training at the time.<\/p>\n

The mother said the health board\u2019s apology mattered to her and was why she did not pursue further action against ADHB.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they owned it, once it was investigated \u2013 to me that goes a long way. With the school, they still to this day haven\u2019t apologised.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the mother is concerned her family\u2019s experience isn\u2019t isolated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s happened to us this easily, how many other people has this happened to before?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Scott is a senior visual journalist at the Herald. His work spans writing, photography and video and he has won numerous journalism awards, including Videographer of the Year and Best Documentary. He has worked in media for more than 25 years, producing stories across New Zealand and internationally.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sensitive information was used by staff at the boy\u2019s first school to discriminate against the mother and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[292279,51,2372,7557,33352,1874,29888,42,134,6628,8454,12898,3523,1868,30510,43,9090,4062,18155,3168,10707,1516,5147,1355,40,38,41,39,6306,4518,3608,102,10119,12475],"class_list":["post-592894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-adhb","tag-auckland","tag-board","tag-district","tag-files","tag-found","tag-handed","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-historic","tag-including","tag-investigation","tag-medical","tag-meth","tag-mothers","tag-news","tag-records","tag-school","tag-sensitive","tag-shared","tag-sons","tag-staff","tag-starship","tag-starting","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-use","tag-weeks","tag-were","tag-with","tag-within","tag-wrongly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}