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Rep. Mike Sells introduces bill to regulate video surveillance in classrooms

January 19, 2009

OLYMPIA – A bill to regulate video surveillance in public schools was introduced last week by State Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett, House Higher Education Committee Vice Chair.

“I wrote this bill because of what happened in Cascade High School a couple of years ago, when the Everett School District spied on a teacher and her students with the use of a hidden camera,” explained Sells.

The incident involved Kay Powers, an English and Journalism teacher who was fired in November, 2007, after the Everett School District accused her of helping the students work on an underground publication, The Free Stehekin, using school computers and on school time.

“The point here is not whether the students’ paper should have gone underground to avoid censoring by school district officials, nor if the teacher and her students were violating any rules,” said Sells, “the point of my bill is that regardless of what they were working on in that classroom, they should have been notified that there was a chance they’d get on camera.”

Sells’ measure, House Bill 1262, would make sure that if any public school is to undergo video surveillance, the school district would have to inform its intent to all certified and classified staff, in writing. The bill would also require written notices posted at all building entrances and outside every room stating that the facilities and their occupants may be subject to video monitoring.

“Our teachers and kids should have a right to know when they’re being watched. The issue is not that the school district wanted to know what was taking place in that classroom, what is appalling is the devious, big-brotherish way they went about it,” Rep. Sells added.