CAPE CORAL, Fla. — On Friday morning, hundreds of pieces of paper were scattered on Pine Island Road by Veterans Parkway in Cape Coral. They weren’t just any papers, they were filled with confidential information about children in the Lee County School District. 

Lee County Public Schools said:

“We were notified this afternoon a significant amount of papers that appeared to be student records were scattered around the intersection of Pine Island Road and Veterans Parkway.  Cape Coral Police coordinated the effort to collect the documents. District staff is working to identify and communicate with the impacted families.”

A spokesperson from the school district said as soon as they found out student records were scattered next to this road, they immediately collected the documents with help from the Cape Coral Police Department.

ABC7 saw a few of these papers and they contained medical information, addresses, phone numbers, grades and even IEPS.

The community wants answers to why this happened and how.

“Should they even be taken out of the building? Shouldn’t these be in a file cabinet like locked up where someone can’t get to them?” Elise Fleck said.

“HIPPA laws, what happened to that? It’s just absolutely shameful. There’s so many pedophiles and weirdos nowadays…this is absolutely terrible –this needs to be corrected and answered immediately,” Kelly Crick said.

“That almost looks purposeful. I mean, unless there was a car wreck or something…you know, when a big truck falls and spills all over the road then you see that kind of stuff. But this looks like somebody just took em out and went ‘weeeee.,” Laura Hansen said.

The school district hasn’t said how the papers got scattered or why.

Count on ABC7 to provide updates as we learn them.