Following a unanimous vote from the Huntsville City Board of Education, a new policy has been enacted in the North Alabama school system, requiring video and audio cameras in special education classrooms to record students during school hours when they are present.
HCS spokesperson Craig Williams spoke to a local news station about the changes.
"A student in a self-contained classroom may have limited verbal abilities, so maybe they're not able to communicate in the same way with their parents," Williams said. "Say, for instance, an incident happens at school, a child arrives home from school with a mark on their arm. Currently, those parents have no way of being able to communicate with their child about what happened."
"So, in the event there is an incident, this offers an additional layer of protection for both students and teachers to have the ability to go back and look at the film and see if anything happened within the classroom."
According to HCS, footage from the cameras will only be reviewed if a principal or superintendent is made aware of a complaint. Access will be restricted to law enforcement, legal counsel, involved staff, parents and any retained investigators.
Additionally, the footage will not be used to evaluate or monitor teachers.
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