DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — After hundreds of children's personal information, including names, birthdays and home addresses, was accidentally published on the Dearborn Heights city website last week, parents are demanding answers.
Parents attended a special meeting at city hall about how the sensitive information was leaked online.
Watch the video reports below:
"It's almost like the damage is already done. The parents are already scared," said Sara Short, a Dearborn Heights parent.
The children were all connected to District 7 Dad's Club, a local nonprofit sports club that is required to share athlete information with the city for seasonal funding.
The information was taken down 24 hours later, but parents are outraged and concerned about their safety.
Previous coverage: Parents concerned after personal information of hundreds of children exposed online
City Council Chairman Mo Baydoun apologized during the meeting.
"On behalf of the city, we're sorry… we're sorry to the city, we're sorry to the parents, it's unfair," Baydoun said.
Joe Doney, who has coached at D7 Dad's Club for over 10 years, said the organization is already feeling the impact of the data breach.
"We've lost three teams and a lot more players because of this incident," Doney said.
During the meeting, Martin Zbosnik, director of parks and recreation, explained that his department typically collects participant information to verify residency for funding purposes.
"So, we verify name and addresses to verify we're only paying for Dearborn Heights residents," Zbosnik said.
That information is usually redacted before being sent to the next department head for approval, but officials acknowledged that step may have been missed in this case.
Some parents expressed disappointment that the mayor wasn't present at the meeting. While the mayor declined interview requests, he stated he has spoken with parents and that the police chief and information technology director are investigating the incident.
Dearborn Heights Police Chief Ahmed Haidar addressed the situation at the meeting.
"We just want to make sure that we correct our mistake going forward. It's never happened to us in the past and it's kind of odd that it's happening to us now," the chief said.
City officials discussed potential solutions including tracking down the IP addresses that may have downloaded the sensitive information, funding D7 Dad's club without needing a roster and implementing stronger data breach procedures.
The City council chairman said if residents remain unsatisfied with the internal investigation, they will request an outside investigation by state police.
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