Who's To Blame In Cameraphone Recording Of Teacher Outburst?
from the wait-a-second-here... dept
A few months ago some kids in India filmed themselves performing sexual acts with a cameraphone. The video got out and, in response, the government has banned mobile phones from public schools -- which seems to be a complete over reaction to two individuals doing something wrong. The two individuals should be punished for their actions. Instead, everyone else gets punished for having devices that could be misused. However, a new story in the US may be even worse. Picturephoning has a story about an angry teacher being caught on video by a cameraphone and then placed on the web. The teacher is seen screaming at students and then yanks the chair out from one student who refuses to stand up for the national anthem (something that the courts have made clear he doesn't need to stand for). To be honest, the quality of the video is pretty good -- so I wonder if it's really a mobile phone camera, though it certainly could be. However, the real issue is the way the school is handling the situation. First of all, the teacher wasn't disciplined at all. Instead, the students who filmed the incident were suspended for 10 days. On top of that, the school is considering banning all mobile phones just because of this incident. It's still not clear what the students did wrong here. They simply filmed a teacher going overboard -- which seems like the perfect use of mobile phone cameras. They helped these students document a teacher going too far. That's the type of use that should be encouraged. Instead, the exact opposite message is being given to students and teachers. Instead of dealing with the real issues, the school is trying to cover it up. As long as the problems aren't known, then everything must be fine.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Out of context
Do we want every teenager with a bad attitude to be recording their teachers and quoting them out of context? The education system would get buried with lawsuits and false accuastions.
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Re: Out of context
What's 'false' about the video? Clearly the accusation here *isn't* false. It was caught on video. I think Mike's questions are fair; why are the guilty being protected and the innocent suspended?
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Re: Out of context
I never heard a teacher act like this clown did, and it does nothing in the teaching of children to loose it like this guy does. He needs to learn that staying in control in the face of such crap as these kids put out and acting intelligently is much better for the others that are there to learn than this angry outburst is.
yelling like this in the privacy of his home, or car to release his anger is the place for the emotion, as everyone would feel frustrated to face disrepect for what he was trying to do.
These kids certainly needed correction, but the teacher should have recieved it too.
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Re: Re: Re: Out of context
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Re: Out of context
I'm guessing you must be from america, as where i'm from we wuoldn't be worried about lawsuits. Typical...
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No Subject Given
Second, is clear that the kids have no respect at all for their teacher. The teacher reacted wrong, I agree with but I think both parties are at fault from the facts given to us by the video. That lack of respect, from the teacher to their students and vice versa is the real problem here.
Teacher must respect his/her students and their rights, but as anything in life it goes both ways, the students should respect their teacher as well (there is a but here, explained below). Again, we don’t have the information of what the kids did before the video was being taken to get their teacher into that state of anger.
Now, that being said there is also the "c'mon" comment. These are teenagers behaving like teenagers, starting to challenge any system given to them. Again, the teacher overreacted and I think if he is one that cannot hold his temper or has a short fuse, he has no business teaching teenagers, it is hard in any school. Teenagers will always challenge you since that is what the teen years are all about. You can come from the more strict family, with hard discipline at home but in school become a jerk.. thats a teenager.
As a principal, I would have reprimanded severely my teacher for shouting and reacting without holding his temper. It is very hard not to loose it from time to time, but it is your job as an educator, yells and anger tantrums have never educated anyone. He provoked the situation, he should’ve just taken the unruly kids to the principal’s office and that’s it.
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Cameraphones in schools
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Re: Cameraphones in schools
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Re: Cameraphones in schools
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Hmm one sided
Perhaps the parents will sue over the suspension and then there will be some more precedent set.
-Griffon
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Re: Hmm one sided
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Re: Hmm one sided
http://images.indymedia.org/imc/nyc/video/4/142188_mantel-chairincident.wmv
original site has had video removed.
this was only about 60 seconds long
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this fred stuart guy almost made me cry
ha sutart the mouse.
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Re: this fred stuart guy almost made me cry
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Re: Hmm one sided
The law has decided that even yelling causes mental harm.
The teacher is wrong becuase he verbally assaulted the tudents and used intimidation tactics.
The student should have been sent to the disiplanarians office and dealt with according to policy and law.
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Who's To Blame In Cameraphone Recording Of Teacher
Respect for the country, respect for the student,(if he earned it), and respect for the teacher. The kid probably never had an ass woopen and the teacher probably had it wooped too much.
I vote no phones in school.
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Re: Who's To Blame In Cameraphone Recording Of Teacher
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Re: Who's To Blame In Cameraphone Recording Of Teacher
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The Indian state government did the right thing. I believe the government was aware of the offences committed by the students.
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Wiretapping anyone?
What is the next step? Will cameras be placed in the classroom to show the reverse angle and other side of the story?
At the end of the day we need to look at the need for certain kinds of technology in the classroom. While camera phones may serve a certain purpose I suspect they are more disruptive than productive. I am all for productive uses of technology in the classroom that enable and increase the involvement of students.
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Wiretapping laws
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Re: Wiretapping laws
Exceptions to the law exist but are limited to: bathrooms, medical facilities, dressing rooms and places designated as secured for national interests.
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Re: Re: Wiretapping laws
No one seems to take anything too seriously at this school. My husband and I feel that if we record this teacher losing her temper, going overboard, and bullying the kids (as they children allege,) the footage might convice the school administration to take action against this teacher, who has been described by some of the children as, "mean" "evil" and "scary."
Any advice you offer will be appreciated. We feel that it is our right to see what's -really- going on in the classroom, but do not want a lawsuit brought against us if secretly videotaping is, in fact, illegal.
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rights of child
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Re: rights of child
Is there a support group for kids who were subjected to that?
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rights?
There is never a time that this type of behaviour is acceptable between an adult and a child especially when that adult is "teaching" the children.
The children were wrong as well, but they are children and as such need an adult to teach them the right way of doing things. Personally i think that the teacher should be disiplined and the students should be told that the teacher acted inappropriatly.
Another issue here is the banning of cell phones from schools because they can be used to video tape people is ridiculous, they should be banned from schools because a phone is not needed for learning.
The big issue of banning people from having camaras in public places is that the governement (here in phila) has placed public camaras on the streets to scare off drug dealers and violant crime. (you can see them for yourselves on girard ave. around 10th street).
If the government can video tape me in public areas then I reserve the right to video everyone else in public places. When my children go to school I will be sure to pack their lunch with a video recorder lol.
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video
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Dearest Aquadaisy
All children are going to say teachers are mean. Teachers have to be stern and even lose their tempers or they would never control a class.
Aquadaisy, go ahead, make excuses for your lousy, spoiled child. Suppose you do videotape the 'evil' teacher. One of those 'evil' teachers that chose teaching as a career because they actually wanted to contribute to the world and help people learn. That 'scary' teacher that could make TWICE as much money having an easier job. I'm sure they wanted to teach just to be 'mean' to children.
Because Aquadaisy, I know that teacher will be better off than you, even if you record them, gasp, 'losing his or her temper.' YOU will reap the consequences of not disciplining your child. YOU will have to live with your ungrateful and disrespectful child and the pathetic adult they become.
And for all of you that are not supportive of teachers: YOU are the reason people leave teaching by the masses and no one wants to teach. I know I will be able to educate my child. You deserve the education system you demise.
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Re: Dearest Aquadaisy
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discipline
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Why, back in my day...
You shove a bunch of teenagers into classrooms all day, forcing them to submit to unknown authority, respect the words of those who haven't earned it, who have no connection to them other than what is forced on them. You feed them amphetamines to help them concentrate. You create an ever more restrictive environment, where every schoolyard scuffle winds up involving police, and girls are prosecuted for teasing another girl who commits suicide. You try to fit some pre-designed chunk of knowledge into brains already dealing with more information than they ever did before, whether or not it suits them at all, in part because these days, tragically, a college degree, and therefore college prep, has become almost essential in making any sort of decent living.
The school system is not designed to educate, it is designed to program, to make compliant little corporate drones. Human nature rebels against such conditioning, and so the students are unruly. This teacher is part of a dehumanizing system set up for the profit of a few at the expense of the many. You think you're noble, but you're just tools, and you deserve to be disrespected.
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What the hell?
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video taping in class with a camera phone
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