Support NeoGAF

[Tripon]

Auutistic and nonverbal, Olivia Espinoza’s son was unable to tell anybody about the abuse. While the disabled child was enrolled at an elementary school in Las Vegas in 2014, his special education teacher pushed and grabbed him, slapped his hands, and threw him to the ground.

After at least three teachers aides spoke out, teacher James Doran pleaded guilty to battery — and Espinoza, who has sued the Clark County School District, is now calling on Nevada lawmakers to approve a bill requiring cameras in self-contained special education classrooms where more than half the students are nonverbal.

Proposed in March by Republican state Sen. Becky Harris, the bill would make Nevada the third state with such rules. Harris said she proposed the legislation after hearing from parents about abuse and noted that it would also protect teachers from false accusations as well as students.

Like Nevada’s camera bill, Texas’s law began with a parent advocate. In 2006, Breggett Rideau’s son, who suffers from a significant cognitive disability, came home from Keller Middle School near Fort Worth with blood in his diaper. In the years to come, he’d suffer from a knot on his head, a dislocated knee, and a broken thumb.

After a school employee reported that the boy’s teacher hit him, yelled at him aggressively, and even ate part of his lunch, Rideau sued. In 2013, a federal court jury awarded the family a $1 million verdict, and Rideau began a campaign to have cameras placed in special education classrooms — a battle she won in 2015.

The Texas law, which went into effect this school year, requires districts to equip self-contained special education classrooms with cameras if a parent or school official requests them. Lawmakers in Georgia passed similar legislation last year, but under that law, participation by schools is voluntary.

In Texas, though, Attorney General Ken Paxton ruled in September that the bill means schools must install cameras in special education classrooms districtwide if they receive even a single request.

Calling it an “unfunded mandate,” Sarah Orman, a senior attorney at the Texas Association of School Boards, said districts have declared the costs unsustainable. Amarillo Independent School District officials, for example, said it would cost $500,000 to install and maintain surveillance equipment for all 75 classrooms.

https://www.the74million.org/articl...-as-texas-reworks-its-first-in-the-nation-law

I work in a classroom with cameras, and I don't like it at all. But I see the need to protect students with severe needs like the ones mentioned in the article. Mainly, I'm disgusted at the actions described in the article.

 

[Karsticles]

Freedom means not having to worry about who is looking over your shoulder.

 

[Reptars Revenge]

Good, I remember seeing the video of the teacher kneeing the mentally disabled student in the back, thank God there was a camera to bust her ass.

 

[cameron]

The argument against cameras:

But TASH, a group that advocates on behalf of people with disabilities, said surveillance can have unintended consequences. In a 2015 white paper, the group reported that cameras can discourage efforts to mainstream special needs children in general education classrooms.

“Placing video cameras in these segregated settings has the potential to … increase the impetus to coerce parents to consent to placement in these settings through the rationale that they are ‘safest’ for their children,” according to the TASH report.

TASH also argues that the cameras can foster mistrust between teachers and students and move abuse to locations outside a camera’s reach.

I don't know enough to comment.

The article is a wonderful dose of misanthropy before bedtime.

 

[Unducks]

Just what special education needs - yet another reason, along with extreme expectations, incessant criticism from all sides, and bureaucratic nightmares (among other factors) for top talent to choose any other field they possibly can.

 

[antonz]

Just what special education needs - yet another reason, along with extreme expectations, incessant criticism from all sides, and bureaucratic nightmares (among other factors) for top talent to choose any other field they possibly can.

If a Camera pushes someone to not pursue a job then it is probably for the best they not take the job.

 

[Sinfamy]

If a Camera pushes someone to not pursue a job then it is probably for the best they not take the job.

Cemeras in every cubicle then.

 

[pa22word]

Cemeras in every cubicle then.

I'd be okay with that.
More often than not bad shit in my day comes from boss man or some other needledick saying "it's his fault because he didn't do x". Having video proof would be nice.

 

[Icebergslim]

Just what special education needs - yet another reason, along with extreme expectations, incessant criticism from all sides, and bureaucratic nightmares (among other factors) for top talent to choose any other field they possibly can.

Just what does this even mean. Are you saying you dont think certain kids need special attention. What does this even have to do with the article.

Also lots of professions work under the view of cameras. Why should teachers be exempt.

 

[Unducks]

Just what does this even mean. Are you saying you dont think certain kids need special attention. What does this even have to do with the article.

Also lots of professions work under the view of cameras. Why should teachers be exempt.

What this means is that being a special education teacher is an extremely thankless job in which you get constant pressure and criticism from all sides. Of course there needs to be some kind of protective measure taken for kids that experience abuse, and that's an unacceptable situation. But there's also a severe problem with bringing qualified people to the job and with preventing burnout. This is only going to hurt that further.

I don't know how you got the idea that I don't think kids need special attention - I used to be a special education teacher. What my comment has to do with the article is noting that this may be a necessary solution, but it will also create further systemic issues in maintaining competent personnel when those people inevitably experience burnout and decide to pursue other careers.

If a Camera pushes someone to not pursue a job then it is probably for the best they not take the job.

Schools are often hostile work environments. Nobody who feels unsupported by their bosses would want to be recorded doing their job by people they don't trust to use the footage for the proper reasons.

 

[Tripon]

What this means is that being a special education teacher is an extremely thankless job in which you get constant pressure and criticism from all sides. Of course there needs to be some kind of protective measure taken for kids that experience abuse, and that's an unacceptable situation. But there's also a severe problem with bringing qualified people to the job and with preventing burnout. This is only going to hurt that further.

I don't know how you got the idea that I don't think kids need special attention - I used to be a special education teacher. What my comment has to do with the article is noting that this may be a necessary solution, but it will also create further systemic issues in maintaining competent personnel when those people inevitably experience burnout and decide to pursue other careers.



Schools are often hostile work environments. Nobody who feels unsupported by their bosses would want to be recorded doing their job by people they don't trust to use the footage for the proper reasons.

I read somewhere, that over 90% of school districts in California can't find enough Special education teachers to fill their positions.