Will principals everywhere soon be recording their interactions with parents and students?
Body cams—they aren't just for police anymore! The Burlington School District in Iowa is going all in on body cams for administrators:
Burlington Community school administrators say the cameras are intended to record interactions with parents to hold everyone accountable.
It’s regarded as one of the first times schools have used the body cameras for their faculty and staff for any purpose.
Each of the principals and vice principals in the district's eight schools will be given the body cameras. More on how they'll be used: Yeoman foresees using the cameras while monitoring student movement in hallways and in the lunchroom, as well as during conversations with students and parents.At the end of each day, principals will be responsible for uploading the recordings, and reviewing and distributing the videos when questions arise, said William Brackett, Burlington's supervisor of technology.
Ken Trump of the National School Safety and Security Services is raising concerns about the use of body cams for administrators: While building cameras record movement of people, which can be helpful to school security, body cameras record individual conversations — raising legal questions and privacy concerns.Plus, Trump said that body cameras could prevent administrators and school resource officers from building trust with students, which is a vital part of keeping students safe. Relationships can pave the way for a teen to admit there's abuse at home, or to voice concern if a friend brought a weapon to school.
Is this a one-off situation or will other school districts follow suit? We'll be watching the Burlington School District to see how the test program rolls out.