The Daniel Boone School Board read on Sept. 8 the first draft of a policy to install and operate audio recordings on the district’s school buses.
Video recording is already used on the school buses contracted from Klein Transportation and New Rhoads Transportation, Inc., both Douglassville.
Most board members appeared to support the use of audio.
Board member Carol Beitz said she is concerned for a number of reasons.
Primarily, the privacy rights of the students and possible legal ramifications.
She also questions how the audio might conflict with FERPA — the Federal Educational Rights & Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of student records.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the law says that schools must have written permission from the parents to release any information from the student’s record.
But, there are nine conditions which allow the school to release information without permission.
Most of the conditions concern studies by the school, an audit, evaluation, a financial aid situation, accrediting organizations.
Three conditions are in order to comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena, health and safety emergencies, and also state and local authorities (within a juvenile justice system).
It is those conditions which Beitz feels students may be unfairly compromised by the use of audio and video.
She said a ‘still picture’ can be captured from any video and rendered on any computer and placed in a student’s record.
That data could later be retrieved through a security breach, accidentally released, and damage a student’s future.
‘I am concerned about the loss of innocence,’ said Beitz, adding, ‘who is advocating for the children? We shouldn’t jump on this.
‘We want kids to be safe but at some point there is a trade off,’ said Beitz. ‘I have taught kids how to be safe — about not leaving traces of them around the internet. That’s my background. Now the audio is going to add value to the product. There are all kinds of concerns for me. It could potentially become a part of their record, but you think you are just recording a fight. Turn the audios on when you need to.’
She said the district should consider adding to the policy the storage of the data and who could request it.
‘This is important not only to the students but to the drive,’ said board member Connor Kurtz.
Board member Michael D. Wolfe said the audio wouldn’t record anything beyond the first four rows of seats and asked for a random recording sample.
District Superintendent Marybeth Torchia said she could not provide that until the policy is approved.
‘If there is an incident on a bus, we would unfortunately have 27 YouTube videos,’ Tamara Twardowski, board member, said.
‘Without the cameras, without the audio, the driver has almost no control,’ said board President Richard Martino, adding, ‘It’s a he said — she said about incidents on the bus. I think there is a very good reason to have the audio and video.’
Board members said signs are posted on all the buses that passengers are recorded on video.
Torchia said bus seats were damaged on Wednesday, Sept. 3, the first day of school.
She doesn’t yet have an estimate of the cost to repair or replace three seats on one bus and one seat on a second bus.
‘Damage of the seats should not be a school district responsibility,’ said Martino. ‘The kids should have been in assigned seats’ and the bus companies should know who was in those seats.
