I’m from Bucharest, Romania. In 2015 the authorities decided that cameras should be installed in all schools. Cameras are supposed to show what is going on both around and inside the building. I know there are cameras in classrooms. I’m not sure whether there are cameras in every classroom of every school, but it is possible. However, cameras do not usually record anything. They only allow guardians to carry out their surveillance duties. Both the authorities and parents in general agreed that watching what is going on in school by means of cameras could only help improve the educational climate.
Huh. I thought you guys got rid of the Securitate.
We didn’t actually. There are SEVEN public secret services in Romania. :smack: I wonder how Ecuador can manage with none. 
Camera surveillance is of course a hot topic in Romania as well, but apparently the idea of surveillance by the people for the people is not really opposed by anybody since it has allowed the police to identify and apprehend various criminals, including a serial pedophile the other day (if anybody is curious).
From the article, the parents basically just wanted to know how their sons day went and what he was learning. So to me, communication on what he was doing was the problem and could best by teachers sending home more status reports.
Now I know of other parents who used secret listening devices to find evidence of abuse and they did find it. I will look to find links.
Some links to consider:
Here is a story of what I call the teacher 'code of silence" where a teacher felt he was fired for reporting abuse.
Here is a similar story of teachers fired for reporting abuse.
Another fromPennsylvania where teachers planned to report abuse to the police but were fired.
Here is another study of how widespread the problem of teacher abuse of special ed kids is.
Here is a nationalstudy that says 1 in 3 children with disabilitiesis likely to have been abused.
ACLU report on children with disabilities getting abused.
Here is a news article about a teacher, caught on tape, abusing a special ed kid. The father put a secret tape recorder on the kid and found the evidence.
Here is another story of a teacher caught on tape bullying a student.
On cameras in special ed classrooms, here is a story how out of Texas where abuse of a middle school student leading to a $1 million judgement over a school district prompted Texas to require them.
Here is a similar story from the UK of a teacher caught on tape bullying a special ed student.
The point of my links is that the link in the very first response in this thread is regarding a ruling that is being called a victory for students’ First Amendment right to make recordings. The same ruling is being reported differently elsewhere.
I wonder if there is any other profession where everyone from legislators to individual citizens feels free to tell the professional how to do their jobs. Do most people try to tell the doctor how to treat their allergies?
I think it is a terrible idea. Blanket recording of all classrooms would lead to a never-ending procession of parents second-guessing and micro-managing the actions of the teachers.
Those parents who want it for their kids will have to explain to me how they’ll keep my children completely out of the picture. I don’t want them recorded.
Well, you do. I’m a father of an ASD child in public schools and I don’t want any such thing. I also think it would be a terrible invasion of privacy for the other special ed children if I could sit there and home evaluate them and their progress via video.
I can actually agree with you about who and when they will watch the cameras. How about yes, the cameras are on but the monitors are only in the principals office? How about if things are recorded the tapes are deleted after say 48 hours?
Who said allowing anyone to sit at home and monitor the video feed from the classroom? We are talking a closed circuit system where the monitoring is only from certain locations like the principals office and where recordings are deleted after 48 hours.
Thats how the security system works at my work.
Ever been to a baseball game and yelled at the umpire?
Seriously though I think they will keep everyone honest.
From the OP:
Are you suggesting that the parents are going to sit in the principal’s office on a regular basis? Because I kind of doubt it. For that matter, your original remark was:
Are you going to come by daily to monitor the teachers and gain a valid assessment of how well they’re performing their job?
That’s less bad than a real-time feed for all but I’d still be against it. You would still have a stream of parents trying to right every perceived wrong but this time they’d have a deadline to work against.
Another issue, is who would have access to such tapes if recording were to take place. I think something bothering me about this particular case is that the parents of one child want to record which is different as to a school or district as a whole deciding to record. Personally, I don’t want other people having access to my child on tape no matter what the intentions are. I just don’t see how you can have one kid recording events of his day without getting other kids caught on the tape. Personally, as I’ve said I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I do see a difference between a district deciding to do it and the parents being aware of it. Those recordings would be the property of the district and not available for public view, letting a student do it is another can of worms. I also agree with another poster who said if the parents are concerned what’s going on, there should be a system where regular reports, etc are sent home.
Back when I was a prof I didn’t allow (audio back then) recording of my lectures for a different reason: Copyright.
These lectures are mine. I don’t want unauthorized copies floating around.
If I was a school facing one of these suits, I’d throw this into the mix.
Yes, good point. There seems to be several different facets to all of this that would really need careful consideration.
I dont think you realize that in a regular classroom, parents are allowed to come in anytime and watch the class. So if in a regular classroom parents are allowed, why not in the regular classroom?
Most likely parents would only want to watch the tape when the perceive something bad had happened or when they just wanted to see what the teacher is doing with their kids.
What is wrong with that?
Again, in a regular classroom parents can come in all the time. So why cant I learn what goes on in the special ed room?