Why You Really Don't Want Cameras in Your Kid's Classroom

There’s been a lot of talk lately about cameras in the classroom, and I know a lot of parents of kids with special needs think this is a great way to prevent and identify abuse by teachers of our kids who are unable come home and tell us what happened. I get how appealing that is. There were plenty of times I longed to be a fly on the wall in my child's classroom. Yet the idea of an undeniable, video-preserved record of my child's day at school terrifies me, and I'm pretty sure it will cause way more trouble than it will  prevent. Consider these unintended consequences:

• Classroom stress goes up. Even great teachers who would never be abusive are going to feel tense about having a camera trained on them throughout their work day. Would you do a better job under those circumstances? For a lot of kids with special needs, more stress in the classroom = more behavior issues. You're making it worse.

• Your child's right to privacy is violated. Does every wrong answer, every social faux pas, every bit of misbehavior, every nose pick really have to be preserved forever on video? Have mercy.

• That video's going to turn up at your IEP meeting. Oh my gosh, you better believe it. And it's going to be a greatest-hits compilation of every instance when your child confirmed the need for everything the school is claiming and recommending. Will you even have access to the raw footage to make your own mix? Wouldn't that be a violation of every other kid's confidentiality?

• No more rules broken in our favor. You know how you talk to your kid's teacher and ask for special consideration, maybe a little variation from the IEP, a little leniency, a little something extra that nobody needs to know about? Yeah, kiss that goodbye.

• The money comes from somewhere. How many better solutions and opportunities are going to get thrown on the scrap heap to pay for those cameras and all that monitoring?

Instead of hurling money and technology at this problem, might there be better, cheaper, and more effective ways to deal with classroom abuse? Can we at least try the following first?

• Train all teachers and aides for the kids they will be working with. This should be the most obvious thing in the world, and yet parents would be shocked to know how little it's done. Not saying this is an excuse for abuse or a reason for it in all cases, but it surely, surely does not help.

• Stop sticking all the behavior problems in one classroom. If you're honest with yourself as a parent, you know how out-of-control extreme behaviors from your child can make you feel. Imagine having a classroom full of them. It is a recipe for disaster, and yet schools regularly dump all those kids on one teacher.

• Get serious about behavior intervention. No more allowing months to go by between identifying a problem in a classroom and getting a specialist in to strategize it. There's no pause button on this stuff. Address it immediately.

• Create a way for personnel to report abuse without repercussions. Other adults in the classroom are already recording this stuff in their brains. Figure out why they're not saying something and fix that.

• Show respect for kids with special needs all around the school. Abuse is easier when "those kids" are in some classroom away from everybody else and no one ever sees them at recess or lunch or in the hallways or feels the right to question. Even self-contained classes can be included in the school community.