cjb88
Little Brother
Member since 5/05 3540 total posts
Name:
C
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Cameras in the Classroom at Riverhead...
We just got this email from our Union... look whats going on at Riverhead:
Newsday.com
LI teachers, parents say cameras intrusive
BY JOHN HILDEBRAND
[email protected]
September 21, 2007
As schools step up security in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre and other tragedies, growing numbers of Long Island teachers and parents complain that increasingly popular surveillance cameras are beginning to intrude on student instruction.
The suspension last week of a popular football coach in Riverhead over his reported refusal to allow a camera to tape his gym class has attracted statewide attention that has union leaders in Albany saying the incident could become a test case of how far surveillance may extend.
Teachers were to hold a protest rally this morning in Riverhead, where teacher representatives vow to resist their district's practice of round-the-clock videotaping in a gymnasium and auditorium at the high school. The controversy erupted earlier this month after football coach Leif Shay was suspended from athletic duties, reportedly for helping to cover a camera lens in the gym.
"First of all, it's my impression that it's a violation of the kids' rights," Shay said. "Those cameras can zoom in and tell you what your eye color is. Who can tell what they're being used for?"
Teachers contend that surveillance of physical-education classes is really no different from setting up cameras in regular classrooms - an encroachment few educators would condone. Many teacher contracts expressly forbid taping classes without permission.
"It just makes you feel that somebody is always watching over your shoulder, and that any little thing might be taken out of context," said Barbara Barosa, president of Riverhead's 435-member teacher union.
Barosa adds that she has heard from teacher representatives in a half-dozen other local districts, all concerned about similar surveillance issues.
Among those districts is Amityville, where teachers also object to electronic monitoring of classes in the high school gym. Objections are being raised as well at the middle school, against the use of cameras in a gym and computer lab there.
"Certainly, we realize the need for security in a gymnasium, you know, when it's used for an assembly or basketball game," said teacher Carolyn Dodd, head of Amityville's 270-member union. "But not when it's used as a classroom."
School officials insist cameras help make students safer. They add that the public has demanded tighter security since the 1999 shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School.
"School security is a big issue in the minds of students and parents," said Diane Scricca, Riverhead's new school superintendent. She took over in July, two years after cameras were installed.
The Riverhead fight predates Scricca's arrival. It began in April when two physical education teacher were suspended, according to local sources, because a tape allegedly showed that the needs of a diabetic child in distress were not being met.
Some parents sympathize with the teachers' position that cameras shouldn't be recording their children's fitness classes in gyms or their choral and band rehearsals in auditoriums.
"Knowing guys are taping these things concerns me no end," said Phil Liquori, a computer consultant with two sons attending Riverhead High.
Across the Island as elsewhere, school districts are investing millions of dollars in the latest high-tech cameras that can swivel upon computerized command and zoom in on individuals' faces. Much of the security push is backed by state and federal money.
Uniondale installed 162 cameras last year at its high school alone. Great Neck began installing about 250 cameras districtwide. Federal statistics show 60 percent of high schools nationwide have at least one security camera on premises.
Most cameras monitor entrances, hallways and stairwells, and don't arouse much controversy. A touchier issue is whether cameras should record activity in areas such as auditoriums and gyms that are sometimes open to the public, but sometimes reserved for instruction.
Many, if not most, districts have found ways to avoid confrontation. Great Neck briefly considered the idea of placing cameras in gyms and auditoriums, but quickly ruled that out. Uniondale does keep cameras in such spots, but switches them off during classes.
"We want students, teachers to be comfortable during instruction," said Florence Simmons, principal of Uniondale High School. "We don't want them on camera."
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cjb88
Little Brother
Member since 5/05 3540 total posts
Name:
C
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Re: Cameras in the Classroom at Riverhead...
Coach stays on bench
Rejects $2,000 penalty as condition for getting his job back
By Bob Liepa and Tim Gannon
Riverhead High School's reassigned football coach, Leif Shay, told The News-Review on Monday night that it didn't look as if he would coach the team again, and he expected to be charged with dismissal.
"I'm just devastated," Mr. Shay said. "I always thought I would get fired because I had a bad season, not because of something like this."
Mr. Shay was referring to the curious circumstances that led to his trouble with the school administration. The coach was removed from the team when he was reassigned by the Riverhead Board of Education for covering a security camera during a physical education class two weeks ago.
Mr. Shay said a school district lawyer told him on Friday that he could keep his job if he paid a $2,000 fine and signed a letter of reprimand with the knowledge that he would remain reassigned for two to four weeks. The coach said he declined the offer. "I didn't feel that using extortion was the right thing to do," he said.
Since then, Mr. Shay said, he has heard nothing from the school district. He said he had not met with the school superintendent, Dianne Scricca, or the school board.
Speaking to The News-Review for the first time since he was reassigned, Mr. Shay presented his version of events. Mr. Shay said the physical education staff had asked the teachers union if the camera could be covered during classes and had been told yes. He said both the teachers union president, Barbara Barosa, and Riverhead's athletic director, Bill Groth, had also given what Mr. Shay said was termed by an attorney as acceptance of the camera covering.
Mr. Groth did not return a phone call seeking comment. Ms. Barosa also could not be reached for comment on that subject.
Mr. Shay said the high school principal, David Zimbler, wanted him to file a letter of insubordination, which Mr. Shay said would have given the school district immediate grounds for dismissal. But at that point, a union representative said the meeting was over until Mr. Shay conferred with Ms. Barosa.
"I was told at that point I was reassigned," said Mr. Shay.
Mr. Shay said he thought he was acting under contractual rights and did not expect his action to draw such a reaction.
"It's a total overreaction," he said. "I'm shocked. This is a real nice attitude with 13 years of loyal service to the district. We're going to throw you under the bus ... All I can think of is maybe they're trying to send a message to the teachers union."
In the meantime, Mr. Shay said he has been spending his work day in a middle school portable trailer, writing curriculum assignments.
Acting in Mr. Shay's place, Riverhead's defensive coordinator, Scott Hackal, coached the Blue Waves in their 33-3 season-opening win in West Babylon on Saturday. Mr. Shay said he listened to some of the game on the radio, but "it hurt too much to listen to all of it. It was rough."
Asked if he derived any comfort from the comments of some of his players and the knowledge that they played well, Mr. Shay replied: "It's bittersweet, obviously. This is 10 years in the making. I put my heart and soul into the program."
In his 10 years as the team's coach, Mr. Shay compiled a 46-32 record, guiding the Blue Waves to the playoffs in three of the past four years, and a Suffolk County Division II championship in 2003.
Mr. Shay said he is concerned about the stress the situation was causing for his wife, Christine, who is expecting the couple's second child in a couple of weeks.
Mr. Shay said he never had a chance to talk to his team since his reassignment, as he was told not to have any contact with the team.
What message would the coach want to give his players?
"I would tell my team, you play this game, not for the coach, but because you love to play the game," he said. "Remember, always have the courage to carry out your convictions. I just hope our kids keep fighting as hard as they can. I'm going to do everything I can to fight this."
School officials have said they cannot publicly discuss personnel situations.
Meanwhile, about 60 Riverhead High School teachers assembled on the sidewalk in front of the high school before classes Tuesday morning in a demonstration of solidarity with Mr. Shay. They didn't possess signs or wear black or shout slogans, but rather they stood around having coffee. Mr. Shay was not present.
"We're just here to show solidarity with our colleague," said Jeff Greenberger, Latin and Greek teacher at the high school.
"We're also here to protest the unfair treatment and lack of respect for the teaching staff," said teacher Scott McKillop.
"If it happened to him [Shay], it can happen to any of us," said teacher Debra Kulka-MacLellan.
"Riverhead Central Faculty Association supported cameras as a security measure. We were assured they wouldn't be used during class or on all day," said RCFA vice president Lisa Goulding, a social studies teacher at the high school.
Barbara Barosa, the RCFA president, said the union first learned that the security cameras were on during gym classes last April, when another gym coach was reassigned in regard to the handling of an issue in which a diabetic student had passed out in a gym class. That incident was captured on security cameras.
Ms. Barosa said the RCFA contract doesn't permit cameras being used in the classroom, and the gym is a classroom.
The specific language states that: "All monitoring and observation of the work performance of a teacher will be conducted openly without the use of electronic equipment unless specifically requested by the teacher," she said.
Ms. Barosa said the RCFA filed a grievance over the issue of cameras in gym classes last June, although school board president Nancy Gassert said no one in the district has seen such a grievance. She also maintains that the language in the RCFA contract merely means that cameras cannot be used for teacher evaluation. She said the cameras in the gym are a security issue.
Ms. Gassert said the district had a security analysis done by a professional security firm a few years ago and it recommended the cameras in the gym.
The problem with the gym, as opposed to other classrooms, she said, is that students can easily go in and out and can let people in the doors to the building, which are locked from the outside.
The district was told that bathrooms and locker rooms were the only places it could not put cameras, she said.
The district installed the security cameras throughout the high school and the high school grounds in late 2005.
Several parents raised privacy issues about the concept of having security cameras on in a gym class and some said this week they have contacted the New York Civil Liberties Union about that issue.
Parents Connie Lague and Patricia and Phil Liquori said last week that they planned to contact the NYCLU, and this week said they did.
"They said to mail them the details and they seemed interested in pursuing it," said Mr. Liquori, whose son is a varsity football player.
"We're talking about filming minors in a gym class. You have to be very cautious about where it is stored, because tapes can be monitored or doctored. There has to be agreed-upon policies in place."
Some residents also had raised concerns about male security personnel watching girls in gym classes.
The NYCLU has been opposed to the concept of security cameras in schools, in general.
The News-Review spoke with Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union on Monday. She was e-mailed a copy of last week's article on the camera situation in Riverhead, but she seemed just as interested in the way the school board meeting was conducted.
"Wow," she said. "There are civil liberties issues all over that article. A school board member has absolutely no authority to order a teacher or certainly not the head of a teachers' organization not to speak. It's a violation of civil liberties."
School board president Nancy Gassert prohibited several speakers, including Riverhead Central Faculty Association president Ms. Barosa, from speaking about the situation regarding Mr. Shay, which she said was a personnel issue, or the situation regarding cameras in a gym class, which she said was in litigation.
"Being elected to the school board doesn't give anybody license to muzzle teachers, members of a union or members of the public who are expressing their opinion," Ms. Lieberman said. "This remains a free country and freedom of speech and expression is what it's all about, even when the school board members don't like it. And controversies never go away by silencing the opposition."
"I never stopped anyone from speaking," Mr. Gassert said. "I told them the policy is not to allow anyone to speak about issues involving personnel or litigation and they kept going. We cannot allow people to take over our meetings."
Ms. Gassert said that by law, a school board doesn't even have to let the public speak at its meetings.
"It's a privilege for the public to speak," she said.
Ms. Gassert said the state law regarding school boards specifically prohibits both the board and the public from discussing personnel and litigation issues in public meetings.
Ms. Lieberman also said, "Security cameras do raise civil liberties concerns; they raise concerns about privacy." She said if the board has a policy about not having cameras on in classrooms, it should apply to all classrooms.
Ms. Lieberman also questioned what happens to the security tapes.
Ms. Gassert said no one other than district security personnel has access to the tapes, and that both male and female security officers monitor the surveillance cameras.
Donald Henderson, the district's head of security, told The News-Review when the cameras were first installed in 2005 that the recordings run on 30-day cycles, after which time they record over themselves. He said if something noteworthy occurred on a particular recording, it is pulled out of the cycle.
Astrid Lehman, the president of the High School Parent-Teacher Organization, said she has heard from parents who are concerned about or opposed to the security cameras in the gym since the incident with Mr. Shay, but added, "I don't recall it being an issue in the past."
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