Stealth video

A friend of my son's got suspended from seventh grade for secretly videoing one of his teachers. Naturally, he posted the video on YouTube. It had a caption like "Mrs. Jones Dancing," although she wasn't dancing. She was just talking. Some kids made funny or almost funny comments. And then they forgot about it until someone told the teacher and they figured out who had posted it. It seems like the charges that led to the suspension are "having a camera in the classroom" and "videoing a person without her permission."

My son asked me what I would have done if he had done this. I'm not sure about the law here. I didn't think it was illegal to video another person in a public place without their permission as long as the video was not for commercial use. I'm squeamish about videoing kids. It seems kinda stalker-ish.

At this point our chat led me into a long excursus on Althusser's ideological state apparatuses and Foucault's account of discipline. My son didn't even seem to mind. He actually agreed ("school sucks"). And so we concluded that if he and his friends formed a "coalition of those who think it was unfair to suspend that kid" and made videos of teachers and vice-principals and posted them as an act of rebellion that I wouldn't be mad.

As long as he keeps his grades up.

Comments

[dan]

Jodi,

Whilst I agree with your son that school often does 'suck', and in frequently excrutiating and soul-destroying ways, I think that being filmed without your permission and, again without your permission, having this displayed on a popular, public website, could be pretty humiliating for the teacher involved, Althusser aside. School often does suck in excrutiating and soul-destroying ways for teachers also, perhaps even for similar reasons. Bringing Althusser back into it, if you want to something about an education system to change, then be fucking serious about it. I can't believe you posted this shit on your blog.

[dan]

- that should be 'excruciating'...

[Jodi]

Well that was a nasty way of putting things (perhaps because you misread the post as something about changing the education system). And it wasn't helped by the paucity of reasons. People are videotaped constantly without our consent. Why should kids be the only ones prevented from weilding cameras?

[dan]

A bad day Jodi. No excuse for the tone; my apologies.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that your son's school has dealt with this really badly, but I also understand why they've done it.It can be really tough teaching in schools, because of bureaucracy, because of the idiocy of state interventions, because of it being an 'impossible profession', because of the frequent insensitivity of kids.

Is there a way your son could protest about the exclusion without taking it out on another teacher?

[alex]

Well, perhaps that wouldn’t be a surprising/debatable outcome at a religiously affiliated school in Louisiana, for instance, irrespective of the nature of the video as well as any and all detriments caused to the teacher, let alone the consent issue. Did that take place at a public institution? Unless it was pornographic in nature, whatever that means, in any shape or form, how did it manage to negatively affect that teacher to presumably request such a measure? Ultimately, the ‘local school politics’ climate would also probably be involved in setting a precedent as chances are no principal would alone assume responsibility for what might later on be a very contentious issue within the community, board, superintendents, etc.

[Jodi]

Apology accepted. Thank you.

Actually, I don't think my son and his friends are going to do anything at all. And I'm not sure whether that's good or bad--showing some kind of resistance could be a good thing.

Yes, it happened at a public school. It didn't disrupt class, because the teacher didn't know about it for a while (a few weeks?). Apparently, the video was quite innocuous, just covert.

One of my closest friends teaches at the middle school. She says it's very tough.

[Michael F.]

Dan was right the first time, and the apology should have been the other way around. Trade places with me for a year (20 years of public school teaching, 10 in the inner city, and 10 in a rural district that keeps its high school library closed and dark, but its sports facilities staffed and lit) and let's see if you rethink your post.
I would welcome being videotaped every day in the classroom, with a camera that shows the students' response to my heartfelt effort; it would be most instructive for the parents.

[Jodi]

Other way around? No....If you would welcome being videotaped, then why would you have a problem with the post? Maybe because in your conception the camera is on the students more than the teacher?

Trading places would not change the post because the post is focused on who has a camera, not the poor conditions of most US schools.

[dan]

re Michael F's post -
Being a teacher means being responsible for everything, even classes that are wilfully ruined by a kid who fancies a bit of enjoyment at the teacher’s expense. That can be difficult to take, especially with a work that many teachers feel they give everything to. Sometimes you feel like the easiest of targets!

It’s possible Jodi's son's friend didn't realise the discomfort he would cause, and perhaps some discussion about it would have created more empathy than the repressive measures the school opted for.

All the best Jodi.