Recording In Classrooms

In, “Caught on Tape - For better or for Worse”, by Andy Carvin, the issue of recording devices in classrooms is discussed. Matthew LaClair, a student at Kearney High School, in New Jersey, videotaped his American history teacher, David Paszkiewicz, preaching Christian views and denouncing evolution. LaClair revealed said recording to his administrators, which brought up the discussion of the separation of church and state. The video was then distributed to the media, when several students complained that they too were recorded without their permission the school issued the neo school decorum that videotaping/recording was no longer allowed without permission.

The allusive problem in the case, was that the ban on recording devices was made right after a school official was caught red handed. As Victor Hugo once said, “The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” The school board may have made this decision based on protecting the rights of the students, but at the time after such allegations were made, it did seam that the school board may have been trying to protect their teachers from other occurrences that might stem form this one.

Personally, I recognize both sides of this dilemma. Why should teachers care to be videotaped during a class. As a molder of young minds a teacher should not object to being watched while they work. On the same note, it is sad and disturbing that a student had to resort to videotaping his teacher to prove wrongdoings to his officials. I can recall a similar incidence at my high school my freshman year. One of the students in my math class repeatedly fell asleep in his desk everyday. My teacher was so bothered by this, that one day, he picked up the desk that contained the sleeping student and hurdled it across the classroom, flipping the desk, and the student, over onto the tile. (My math teacher was also the football