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Helping Students Understand the
Ethics of Taking Pictures at School
Molly Denne and Kathleen Lopac
Source: https://image.freepik.com/free-photo/happy-students-taking-selfie-in-class_1098-1213.jpg
There was a time when cameras only came to school for field trips, special events, and the last day of school. That time is no longer. At some schools, every student is carrying a camera with them at all times, in ALL places, including classrooms, cafeterias, bathrooms and locker rooms. These are all places that previously would rarely, if ever, have seen cameras. Schools have policies regarding cell phone/device use during the day in place, but policy or not, students are taking pictures during the day, and sharing them all over their social media feeds, violating the privacy of the individual.
At times taking pictures is really useful, students can snap pictures of the notes on the board, homework assignments, and solutions that have been provided to assist with understanding content, but it does not take much imagination to come up with ways this could go horribly wrong. This issue also does not just impact student to student interactions, but also student to teacher interactions, student to school, school to community and the list goes on.
Let's take some time to unpack this issue of cameras in schools and understand how all the different stakeholders are impacted.
Who are the stakeholders?
Students
Teachers
Schools
Families
Communities
What are the expectations of the different stakeholders when it comes to school?
Most schools innumerate the rights and responsibilities of students and staff in handbooks distributed at the beginning of the year. Now, many are also available online through the school or district website. Here are listed some of the most basic expectations or assumptions by the different stakeholders in schools.
Students
Students expect to be able to come to school to receive an education. They expect to be able to do that free from harassment by other students, teachers or the school. They expect that their privacy and dignity will be upheld by teachers and the school. (St. Paul Public Schools, 2016)
Teachers
Teachers expect to be able to come to work to educate students, they expect to have a day free from harassment by students, other teachers, the administration, families and the community. Teachers also expect that they will be treated with dignity during their day. (St Paul Board of Education, 2015)
Schools
Schools expect that students and teachers come to the building every day to learn and to teach. They expect that students and teachers will carry out their responsibilities and conduct themselves in a manner that follows all school policies and procedures. Deviation from these policies can result in consequences for students, teachers and the school. (St. Paul Public Schools, 2016; St. Paul Board of Education,2015)
Families
Families expect they will be able to send their children to school and have them returned in the same, preferably better, condition as when they left, intellectually, emotionally and physically. They expect the school will have the best interest of the student at heart. (St. Paul Public Schools, 2015)
Communities
Communities expect schools to be engaged with them and to work for them. They want schools to be a source of pride that adds value to the community by helping to shape well-educated young people. (O'Brien, 2012)
How are the different stakeholders affected when a picture is taken at school?
Let's start by examining this article about a BuzzFeed list that objectifies male substitute teachers, using pictures students took at school and then captioned.
Students
In this situation students took pictures of teachers and violated their right to privacy, and took away their ability to consent to having their image distributed.
Teachers
The teachers in this situation did not give consent to have their pictures taken or distributed, they also were not given a chance to moderate comments made about them. Although comments may be seen as "positive" to some, they could likely be seen as, or cause, harassment of the person in the pictures.
Schools
Schools could receive unwanted attention based on the fact that some may consider these photos as evidence that inappropriate behavior is happening on the part of the teacher.
Families
Families could have legal action brought against them by teachers or other school staff who had their pictures taken without consent and had some harm come from the picture. The harm could be in the form of damaging a reputation or causing employment problems due to a school investigation.
Communities
Members of the community could see the comments made by students and assume that students were given the idea to post such captions by the teacher's actions. This undermines the professional reputation of the teacher without the teacher having any knowledge of the situation. Unwanted attention could also damage the reputation of a school among community members.
Take a few minutes to examine how the stakeholders are affected in these other similar situations:
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Taking an Upskirt Photo of a New Teacher and Uploading to Facebook
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Student takes picture of teacher backside and puts it on Snapchat
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Student takes a picture of a teacher who fainted
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Student takes a picture of a sleeping substitute teacher
What are the internal factors that merit consideration in regards to taking photos in the classroom?
- Teachers are not consistent in their classroom when it comes to student's taking photos.
- Teachers are not aware of what is in the student handbook because it changes from year to year.
- The policies are not reviewed.
What are the external factors that merit consideration in regards to taking photos in the classroom?
- Parents allow their child to take smartphones to school with them.
- Schools are going 1:1.
- Technology is always changing and it is hard for teachers to stay on top of the newest social media platform.
- Students know how to break through privacy setting put in place by the school's server.
How are schools responding to this new problem?
Schools have integrated student use of cameras during the school day into their handbook or acceptable use policy, but students, staff, and teachers are often unaware of this policy as it is buried in pages and pages of policies. All parties involved need to be very aware that a policy exists, know that they have rights if they are the victim, and know what the consequences are if they are the perpetrator. Click below to access policies that schools in MN have in place when it comes to capturing images on devices.
What is an ethical solution to this problem?
Since it is the case that camera use by students has already become a problem, and it not just theorized to be something that could become a problem, schools need to take immediate steps to create an ethical solution that protects all stakeholders. Schools already have policies in place, but we need to take action to ensure that students, staff, and faculty know of the policy.
- The first step would involve schools ensuring that their policies and procedures related to student use of cameras on school property and during the school day are known. We are putting our plan into action by creating an infographic to be posted in every classroom, hallway, and less academic spaces. Posting this infographic around schools will be a constant reminder to students when they are going to pull out their phone to snap a picture and share it with the world that there are real consequences and that it is a blatant violation of respect and school policy. This infographic has been shared with administration to ensure that it is used this coming school year.
*This page has been shared in the St. Kate's "EduKate" Diigo group.
Resources
Campanile, C., Rosario, F. % Fears, D. (2015, March 17) Student snaps upskirt photo of teacher after phone ban is lifted. NYPost. Retrieved from http://nypost.com/2015/03/17/student-snaps-up-skirt-photo-of-teacher-after-phone-ban-is-lifted/
Cockroft, S. (2015, December 11) Girl, 13, reported to police by her school for taking a snapchat picture of her teacher during a lesson. Daily Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3356377/Schoolgirl-13-reported-police-teachers-taking-Snapchat-picture-teacher-lesson-warned-face-criminal-charges.html
Media Mole. (2015, August 20) Buzzfeed publishes creepshot pictures of 'hot teachers' secretly taken by students. NewStatesmen. Retrieved from http://www.newstatesman.com/media-mole/2015/08/buzzfeeds-teacher-creepshot-article-not-ok
O'Brien, A. (2012). The importance of community involvement in schools. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/community-parent-involvement-essential-anne-obrien
Stopera, M., Galindo B. (2015, August 19) 13 Really hot teachers that will have you begging for detention. Buzzfeed. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/mmmmmmmm?utm_term=.foOv3rA8#.jnPyXxpj
St. Paul Board of Education. (2015). Policies and Procedures. Retrieved from http://www.spps.org/policy
St. Paul Public Schools. (2016). Student rights and responsibilities handbook. Retrieved from http://www.spps.org/rights_and_responsibilities
St. Paul Public Schools. (2015). Welcomes parents and families. Retrieved from http://www.spps.org/domain/1300
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