Everett, Wash.
Published: Friday, January 23, 2009

Everett bans secret videotaping in classrooms

The pledge is part of an agreement with the teachers union. A lawmaker from Everett hopes to extend the restriction statewide.

By Eric Stevick and Jerry Cornfield
Herald Writers

 EVERETT -- Hidden video cameras will be banned from secretly recording classrooms in the future, the Everett School District has agreed.

The pledge was made as part of a settlement with the Everett teachers union, which agreed to drop an unfair labor practice complaint over the practice made against the district.

Both sides are happy about the agreement, said Mitch Cogdill, a lawyer who represents the Everett Education Association.

"It's also an indication to anybody looking at it that there is a new era in the district," Cogdill said. "It shows they want to work collaboratively and not be adversarial and to do things that are clearly wrong in an arbitrary way."

Interim Superintendent Karst Brandsma said he hopes the agreement helps establish trust.

"You develop trust by being open, honest and forthright, and that's our goal," he said

Accusations of spying arose after the school district suspended Cascade High School English and journalism teacher Kay Powers in June 2007. She was fired in November 2007 after the district concluded she helped students publish an underground student newspaper while using district equipment. Powers did so against a direct order from Superintendent Carol Whitehead, who has since retired.

The teachers' union appealed her firing. A settlement reached last April allowed the 66-year-old instructor to return for another school year before promising to leave the district. She's teaching English at Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek through the 2008-09 school year. She also received back pay.

Lawyers for the Everett Education Association believed the settlement was offered because the union was prepared to present evidence that the district put a secret surveillance camera in Powers' classroom as part of its investigation. That was something the district had previously denied doing.

Whitehead later acknowledged there had been a camera inside the room recording who entered and left the classroom. She said no illegal audio recording occurred and the surveillance recording was missing. District officials said the vendor was supposed to install the camera outside the door of the classroom.

Issues arising from the case against Powers and the Free Stehekin underground student newspaper have cost taxpayers more than $200,000 in attorney fees.

The settlement between the district and union states: "Except pursuant to a court order, the district will not allow the installation of a video camera in a classroom or a (union)-represented employee's assigned workspace without the prior written approval of the union president."

As a result of the Powers case, an Everett lawmaker is pushing for a new state law to ensure students, staff and teachers know when video surveillance cameras are monitoring them at schools.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett.

Sells said he does not want to outlaw use of cameras. He wants to require district officials notify those in the buildings where they will be used, in the same way they must let people know when they are being recorded on audio devices.

"The whole idea that we have to notify people when audio taping is going and not video cameras seems wrong," he said.

Video cameras should be used as a preventive tool, not a "gotcha" device and in the case at Cascade "it was kind of a gotcha thing."

"It is one thing to tell a teacher not to do something but to put spy cameras in the classroom and not tell anybody is another thing," he said. "We just don't do that in America or at least we shouldn't do that."

Kim Mead, president of the Everett Education Association, said she hopes the bill passes into law.

"I think it's outstanding," she said.

Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens, is the only Republican among the 21 lawmakers signed on as supporters. He serves in the 44th Legislative District, home to many Cascade High School students.

Hope, whose wife is a substitute teacher, said surveillance cameras should only be used in public schools as a tool for prevention, not investigation. He described what transpired at Cascade as going "way beyond prevention."

The bill also helps ensure student privacy is protected, he said.



Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA