While there were several large items on the August 1st Board of Education meeting, there was some smaller actions passed that you may be unaware of.

Geary USD 475 has a Concealed Observations policy that “prohibits individuals from recording” students or staff without their knowledge.

As the policy is written, a student can not secretly record a teacher or administrator without their knowledge and vice versa.

Many of us in the age of social media have seen the “viral” videos of school employees “behaving badly” or in many cases simply having a good time with their students – often unbeknowst that a student is recording and uploading to Youtube, Snapchat or Facebook, for example. There are also the instances where students may record a fight and potentially have evidence that can help administrators.

The kicker – the policy contradicts state law.

Dr. Corbin Witt, Superintendent of Geary County Schools USD 475 said, “they need to let the people know if they’re going to be audio or videotaping one of our staff members during activities, so it kind of gives us some protection from that.”

The policy verbatim states:  “We offer this policy to prohibit individuals from recording students, employees, and/or board members surreptitiously or through the use of concealed audio and/or visual recording devices at school, on or in district property, and at meetings and conferences held for educational or disciplinary purposes.  Kansas law provides that any party to a conversation may lawfully record the conversation. However, we are using your Home Rule authority to limit recording unless we know it is taking place (with some exceptions for extracurricular activities).  In this way, schools can make their own copy of the conversation to ensure they have a full legal record of what transpired, or schools can atleast be mindful that employee interactions are subject to recording.”

This policy, like others are part of the June 2016 updated KASB (Kansas Association of School Boards) policies.

What do you think?