NJ school has RF-tags on students, teachers. Teachers' lounge, classrooms wired video & audio.

[madfloridian]

Hat tip to Jersey Jazzman for this appalling information. What's ironic is that the surveillance system cost 2 million, the district is now 3.6 million in the red for next year.

I would say priorities seriously out of order.

Why Do We Need Tenure? Ask Belleville's Teachers


BEA President Mike Mignone, with NJEA officers Sean Spiller, Wendell Steinhauer, and Marie Blistan.

That's right, my fellow teachers: in Belleville, a camera and microphone monitor every word uttered in the teachers break room!

But that's not all: all Belleville faculty, high school students, and middle school students must have special ID cards with them at all times. These ID's include "RF-tags," which are radio frequency devices similar to what you'd find in an EZ-Pass. They were originally used to track cattle: now, they track the positions of all staff and all students at all times.

That's right, my fellow teachers and parents: in Belleville, the movements of students and faculty are tracked at all times! Big Brother better not find out if you snuck off to the bathroom before the bell...

...When the system was booted up this past fall, the teachers union decided they'd had enough. It was bad enough the board wasted this money on invasive technology that wouldn't do anything to stop a Sandy Hook-like attacker. It was bad enough that teachers were now being watched constantly, as if they worked in a Soviet reeducation camp. But all of this had been implemented without the benefit of any negotiation, a clear violation of the collective bargaining rights of the BEA.

Mike Mignone, president of the union and pictured above, started speaking out about it. He pushed to examine the contract making process.

As Jersey Jazzman says guess what happened next.

As Mignone's lawyer puts it: in October, he found out; in November, he spoke out; in December, tenure charges were filed against him. Mignone, who had always had excellent reviews, suddenly found out he would be up on charges that included (get ready for this one) answering students' questions about the surveillance system. According to Mignone, his students asked him questions about whether they were being monitored; he took a few minutes out of class and gave them some honest answers. That, in this board's and this superintendent's minds, counts as a fireable offense.

Follow Jersey Jazzman on Twitter

[MADem]

1. It's so easy to make those RFID traces disappear....

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-blockkill-RFID-chips/










However, anyone who lives in an urban area just has to LOOK UP. Smile, You're On Candid Camera. It has been thus for decades in many places, now. Big hats and glasses are all the rage!

[madfloridian]

2. But what's the easy solution to keeping a great teacher from being fired...

for being honest about a surveillance system in which teachers' conversations and movements were monitored in their teachers' lounge.

What's the solution for going into debt in a school to buy a total surveillance system?

Where's the education in all this?

[stillwaiting]

10. They are educating us to accept being monitored and controlled at all times.

That's about it unfortunately.

That's a special kind of freedom I tell you what!

[madfloridian]

11. Well just think. Parents should love it. Classrooms on video audio, teachers on video audio...

Then they can watch when their high school kid goes to the bathroom or wherever. Some call that a good thing.

And those awful teachers who are so bad in the classroom and who sit around their teachers' lounges saying naughty things.....well, they will be found out won't they?

And everyone's happy except the teacher who will be fired for speaking out about it.

[woo me with science]

13. Disturbing as hell.

[MADem]

15. Some school systems are run by, well, dumb fucks. Some towns are little fiefdoms.

Maybe that fired teacher should run for mayor or town manager or the school committee, and raise some hell. Sad fact is, no one turns out at local elections anymore--someone like that just might make enough waves to make change and get out the vote.

If the voters of the town don't "bee word" about where their property taxes are going, they deserve what they get. If they LIKE the fact that the schools are run like prisons, it's time for those teachers to pack up and get the hell outta there. The alternative is to stand and deliver, take some shit, put oneself at employment risk, and fight back.

This may suck for a teacher or twenty, but if they don't sit on their hands taking it, and challenge the system, maybe even fire up a recall petition, then they aren't fighting back and frankly, no one will care.

In sum, the only solutions are HARD ones--there are no easy solutions.

Wish I could be more sanguine, but there is no simple fix--that said, if someone does fight back, and wins, there's sure as hell some education in that!

[wcast]

18. I agree with you! School boards are elected positions

You need have no experience in education, or any other field, to be a school board director. These are the people that makes the policies, creates the budget, and makes educational decisions, and that is only on the local level. We then have state politicians and then federal oversight and more politics. Imagine if Microsoft or Apple where run by people who have no experience in their field. Arne Duncan, who our President appointed, has a sociology degree and no education experience in the classroom or pedagogy. Politics in education is what makes it horrible, but the two will never be separated.

[Eleanors38]

42. I go with this. This stuff is an outgrowth of "Taylorism."

A late 19th Century theory of "scientific management" whereby workers' on-the-job movements, actions, positioning, distractions, etc. were finely measured to determine the most cost-effective means to produce a product. This often resulted in work "speed-ups." Big spur to the labor movement.

While the mass info collection in the OP is seen as fundamentally concomitant with modern political and economic totalitarianism, Taylorism was an earlier, somewhat more prosaic beginning for similar practices.

[PeoViejo]

4. A Hammer with nothing to lose

...and they say hammers are dumb....

[madfloridian]

3. Rally to protest these outrages. Video.

How many still think it's a good idea to get rid of teachers' unions? Not me.

As Jersey Jazzman reports "Today, I'm proud to be Mike Mignone!"

[Scuba]

5. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand ...

... spending $2M on the system is ridiculous and smacks of corruption. Perhaps some IT folks can comment on what a reasonable cost might be.

On the other hand, I'm less troubled by monitoring what goes on with our children while they are at school. I'm not sure the teachers have any right to privacy in their employer-provided lounge, and as is similar with law enforcement, the monitoring should help protect both children and teachers who are doing nothing wrong.

Are there other considerations I'm missing?

[madfloridian]

6. No, you covered it all. Anything goes now.

Got it.

[Scuba]

7. I detect a trace of sarcasm. If that's correct, can you please provide me another perspective?

Serious request, thanks.

[madfloridian]

8. We have covered intense surveillance methods here often. Your feeling about the teacher...

who might lost his job for being honest with the kids and outspoken?

Otherwise the rest about teachers being video taped and listened to in the teachers' lounge is all part of accepting the kind of NSA spying we used to abhor here at DU.

But that is your opinion, that is your right.

I don't really know how to answer you completely because my view is worlds apart from that. I think I am surprised at your words.

[Scuba]

14. No one should lose their job for being outspoken about this. And I certainly object to ...

... intense surveillance of people in areas where they have a right to privacy. Are you saying government and/or business employees have a right to privacy while they are on the employer's premises? That would imply employers have no right to monitor their own businesses, be they schools, stores, whatever.

I guess I'm failing to understand what is so objectionable. Are you suggesting it will keep teachers from "being honest" and "outspoken" with students? Is censorship your concern?

[madfloridian]

16. If I have to explain how all that monitoring in classrooms and lounges bothers me...

then I don't know how to actually do that.

I really don't know other than what I have said....and that is not sarcastic.

I have been in classrooms where things were being videotaped. It's very hard for both the speaker and the class. It's a setting where no one feels comfortable, where they are afraid to speak out honestly. It's an artificial type setting.

But as I say, it sure does catch every "bad" thing teachers do. We just give up a little bit more of our souls and our privacy as the surveillance gets stronger.



I post things now at DU that would never have been argued about before. But times have changed so much, we have defended so much to defend Democrats who go too far to the right at times....that almost anything goes now.

I find it sad and disheartening.

[Scuba]

23. Interesting comments, thank you. I'm one of those who is typically accused of being too liberal ...

I've been outspoken in my criticism of the NSA mass spying and in my defense of whistleblowers, but at the same time have argued that law enforcement officers should be required to wear cameras at all times. At least in my own mind I don't see that as cognitive dissonance.

I am also a strong supporter of teachers, and letting them teach pretty much as they see fit. I am very concerned about teachers who might be inclined to present a Christian/conservative spin on things while I'm less concerned about teachers putting a liberal spin on things. I suppose this makes me a hypocrite but I can rationalize it by remembering that facts have a liberal bias.

If the system is being used to catch "bad" things teachers do I would hope that "bad" would be narrowly defined to include things like molestation and religious proselytizing rather than things like critical thinking. However, I'm not aware of any widespread molestation problems that would justify a school spending $2M on surveillance equipment. Not in public schools at least.

Anyway, I appreciate your thoughtful response.

[WinkyDink]

31. "I'm not sure the teachers have any right to privacy in their employer-provided lounge"---WTF????!

YOU AREN'T "SURE"??

Well, as a FORMER TEACHER and as a CURRENT HUMAN BEING, I'M DAMN SURE.

Why would you think ADULTS, on their FREE TIME, would need to be MONITORED like common criminals??

BTW: The Superintendent and his Administrative staff of Principals, Vice-Principals, etc., are ALSO employed by the school district.
Do THEY get their every moment watched and surveilled?

I'D BET NOT.

[Scuba]

32. Who pays for the lounge, the teachers or school board?

What is the school board's accountability if there is a hostile work environment in the lounge?

These are honest questions.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Having recording in class

with parental permission, for teaching purposes, is fine. IN the lounge you are crossing extremely red lines.

I guess all lounges everywhere should be treated that way, and no, bringing cops while at work does not work and the ACLU has actually come in favor or cops concerned about their privacy while on break, for example.

[A Little Weird]

33. "If you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about"

The teachers should not be monitored when they are on breaks. They should have an expectation of privacy even if it's school property. I'm not sure if teachers can routinely leave the premises for their breaks, I remember when my grandmother taught and she was expected to stay on school grounds. That was a long time ago at a small rural school so maybe it's not the way things are everywhere. But regardless, teachers should be able to talk to each other on their breaks about whatever they want without worrying that it will get them fired.

I'm less bothered by monitoring in the classroom but I still think it is unneeded and intrusive. If a school administrator decides they want to get rid of a teacher or intimidate them in some way, they can examine the classroom surveillance to look for any screw up. None of us can be in top form all the time. I suspect if I were monitored all day at work, every single day then my boss could find a reason to fire me if he really wanted to. Maybe this would be ok if the administrators and school board members also have to undergo constant video surveillance by an oversight board. But I'm guessing Big Brother doesn't watch over them.

That school district must have everything it needs to be able to blow $2M on this system. I know I would be one pissed off taxpayer if the local schools did this.

[madfloridian]

35. I agree.

We can be a little weird together. Because more and more people here are starting to think that way about me....even though I have many credible posts behind me.

Oh well. Like your sig line.

[A Little Weird]

38. Thanks!

I always appreciate people who join me in weirdness.

I don't usually post a lot (today I'm on a roll) but I love reading here on DU. I've read and appreciated your posts, especially on education topics. I don't have any kids so I don't follow education news closely; I rely on DU to keep me up on how things are going.

So thanks!

[Eleanors38]

43. Being weird is not the same as being wrong.

The mics/cameras in a lounge is a little absurd; easy, authoritarian solutions to small-potato problems. Schools are increasingly institutions where no one has the teacher's back.

[madfloridian]

9. I should have known.

This like most other topics here are either a topic to joke about or a chance to stand up for things we used to protest about here.

And one must either take it or move on.

[MADem]

19. That's what you're getting from the comments, here? What kind of "privacy" do you want for

teachers? For students?

I think maybe we need to start with what's reasonable. I don't think this is "funny" at all and I don't think that teacher should have been fired, so let's start with that as an element of accord.

But what--in this day and age, in this era of Columbines and politicization of education, is reasonable?

Kid gets attacked by a teacher in school, and some surveillance (the xfinity standard, not two million bucks worth) might have deterred it--is that kind of surveillance unreasonable?

They have a way to prevent students from leaving campus without their awareness (non-custodial kidnap, e.g., or some young girl running off with that older boyfriend); should they not utilize this tool?

They have a way to prevent unauthorized entrants into the school--is this bad?

Do you think that teachers should not be accountable for what they say to students? The teacher preaching Creationism in the science class, the teacher talking about how the liberals have destroyed America, they should be allowed to teach their opinions as fact?

Teacher is accused of laying hands on a student, either in a religious way or to crack the kid across the face for "disobeying." Monitors in the classroom can make it entirely clear who's lying--is this a bad thing?

Since the early days of DU, I've been saying that "privacy" is a horse that long left the barn. Cameras are all over the streets in Europe and have been for eons; same deal with major US cities like NYC and Boston and LA. In some cities they even use triangulation technology to alert police to gunshots and get them in minutes to within FEET of where the shot was fired.

It's only now, all these years later, that people are starting to freak out about it.

So I think the thing that needs to be discussed is what's REASONABLE? What does the public want, in this case, when it comes to their kids? How safe do they want them to be? How much safety will they trade for privacy? Where does privacy start to encroach on the ability to teach? Why should teachers be afraid to teach honestly, OR are administrators using teacher's words to fire?

I think teacher's unions are good things, generally. I think they probably protect more good teachers than bad ones, though the bad ones get all the attention.

[madfloridian]

24. Who are you quoting in the blockquotes you posted?

I am just curious.

I realize you have a right to your opinions. I also realize we have no privacy.

I guess I am like that teacher who decides to speak up even if their voice shakes, even if they get fired.

I think it is unnecessary to show such distrust of teachers and students that their every move must be scrutinized.

But then I realize I am way way way in the minority at DU now opinion wise.

[MADem]

40. Myself--I was "making a list" there...it's not all inclusive, I was just thinking off the top of my

head.

If you're the teacher who decides to speak up, YOU'RE the teacher who needs to run for school committee! You're the teacher that needs to organize that petition drive to get that fired teacher re-hired, to recall the school committee chairman or get the superintendent fired or put that multimillion dollar white elephant of a surveillance system under the bugetary microscope.

I don't think you're in the minority in terms of the rights of teachers to feel safe in their jobs when they're doing nothing wrong. I think maybe your concerns about how these surveillance tools are used is not misplaced, either. I've pointed out a few ways that the devices can protect a teacher from bogus charges--and we do know that, with cellphones, troublemaking students DO on odd occasion record their teachers and they goad them to have melt-downs.

The tools--the surveillance and the methodologies to record who is in the building, and who isn't--be it a swipe card or rfid chip or whatever--aren't going away. They just aren't. I get my ass handed to me every time I say that, but they are--like it or not--the new reality.

I think the next frontier is determining how those tools can be used, and equally importantly, how they CAN'T be used. The Supremes just said that cops need a warrant before digging into a cellphone--so that's a start.

[madfloridian]

41. Those teachers are fighting back, it seems the parents are joining.

So I certainly hope that surveillance in classrooms and teachers' lounges does go away.

Those teachers are taking chances with their careers by fighting it, so I wish them the very best.

[MADem]

48. I don't think all classroom surveillance is bad, for reasons I've stated.

Perhaps sound recording isn't necessary, and no need for anything more than a camera that covers the entire room, with the video discarded every two weeks or month or so, but particularly when someone is accused of striking another person, that imagery can resolve those issues promptly. Sometimes a cellphone shot can be edited to suggest that something is happening when it's actually the complete opposite.

If I were a teacher and my "lounge" was being audio/video surveilled, in a manner that suggests that administrators are listening in, I'd start taking my coffee breaks in the parking lot.

Here's an example where I back a teacher, even though she belted a kid with a broom (apologize for the Fox video but it's the best view of the cellphone footage)--I think this is a good teacher in a shitty situation.

It took awhile but she was reinstated--after initially being accused of "child abuse" on top of everything else:

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/05/13/eaa-reinstates-detroit-teacher-fired-after-using-broom-to-break-up-fight/

[bananas]

37. It's like the school that was spying on kid in their bedrooms using their laptop webcam

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/School-Spies-on-Students-at-Home-with-Webcams-Suit-84712852.html


School Spies on Students at Home With Webcams: Suit
Administrator remotely activates student's webcam to watch his “improper behavior” at home: lawsuit
By Teresa Masterson | Thursday, Feb 18, 2010

A Philadelphia-area school official confronted a student with photographic evidence that he was doing bad things at home. She got her evidence by activating the webcam on the laptop in his house, a lawsuit claims.

Lower Merion School District officials are spying on students and their families inside their homes with Web cameras installed in pupil laptops, claims Blake J. Robbins in a lawsuit against the district.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 11, alleges that webcams in personal laptops -- that are issued to every high school student -- can be, and have been, remotely activated by school administrators without a person in the same room as the laptop being the wiser.

How did Robbins and his family find out administrators could spy on them?

On Nov. 11, Harriton High School Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko told the teen that he “was engaged in improper behavior in his home,” and showed Robbins photographic evidence from his webcam, according to the suit.

<snip>

There were people on DU claiming first that it couldn't happen, then that it could but didn't happen, then that was a good thing and all schools should spy on kid in their bedrooms.

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. And that also crossed red lines

[Initech]

12. No money for tenure, but plenty for the untapped surveillance state!

[LWolf]

17. That is truly creepy.

I truly have no words to express the depth of my disgust. Re-education camp is right.

I hope that their union is able to put an end to it.

[madfloridian]

44. I agree.

But then I appear to be in the minority on this topic. I am finding that more and more now.

[LWolf]

46. I find it,

to be honest, really frightening.

To clarify: "it" meaning the number of supposed Democrats/progressives/liberals willing to serve up public education and teachers for dinner.

[madfloridian]

47. Willing and eager.

Way too many, I agree.

[Takket]

20. How the !##$!@%$ did this system get approved?????????

Citizens these days seem to get angry if the school board wants to approve funding to buy books, let alone 2 million for a system to electronically track their kids. Wasn't there a school board meeting to discuss funding for this? Was there a vote on a millage? I cannot for one second believe the citizens of the town wouldn't EXPLODE with rage if they found out this was going to be built. How in the world did this project get funded?????????????

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. You attend regular meetings of your local board of course

I have gone to them... and at times it is me, staff, and the Board members. It is cozy I admit. We are on a first name basis as well.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Creepy

but sadly we are moving towards that.

This said, your comment about people being taped and being uncomfortable, as a general statement I think you are wrong. I have been watching the County Board of Supers, open meeting, Brown Act, and all that on my computer. This means. recorded and all that. I am just streaming live.

In a class setting... if this is debate class, mass communications or anything else were recording is bread and butter, sure... regular class.. not so sure unless, and that is a big caveat, it is done by a mentor to teach a younger teacher how to do the job. This has been done for a while in multiple school settings, including Universities.

The break room, that is crossing major lines, and having to track kid's every step... well if they were in Juvenile hall I get it. Outside of it... nope.

So I guess there is this need for nuance, but I do not expect that in black and white thinking.

On the surface though, corruption, my heart is about to sink as I faint... in this country? Are you some kind of commie to suggest there is corruption in the US? you am afraid will need it, as well as many readers.

[madfloridian]

25. I had many interns when I taught. I was their mentor.

It was a huge responsibility.

There were no cameras. The university consultants who came regularly to follow the progress never requested video but one time. And it was a voluntary thing on the part of the intern.

We had to get permission from parents of all the children before that video-taping could happen. What happened to parental permission?

What has happened to any trust and confidence at all in our teachers?

I think I will link this thread to Jersey Jazzman....oops I already did. He should be interested to see the way a Democratic forum responds to total information awareness at a high school.

I would have thought differently,, but now I know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. As I said, in general there is a problem

but my local school districts do tape as part of training. They do request parental permission and with certain classes, they just ask for it at the beginning of the year becuase tapping is part of the student critique. (Mass communications and speech classes that are part of the AP coursework)

My local university, we have a school of education, also tapes classes for teaching purposes, with parental permission. But this is the nuance you are missing.

You retired, what ten years ago? Things have changed a lot since.

[madfloridian]

28. Nuance.

Some things are hard for me to see that way. I must be, as I have been called just recently here...it is still in writing for all to see....old, ageist, and a few other adjectives.

I do nuance well sometimes, but in this case the lack of trust in teachers and students is unnerving to me.

We are so accepting now of everything.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. And in this particular school board you are correct

but in other boards this is not the case.

I like to take things individually. But that is just me.

Oh and I will blame parents here for NOT being there at school board meetings, and I am sure the media was absent, and so were other forces.

I cover a lot of my local government, I love to hear people complaint on the 'nets, but I love it when it is me, and my Board, and staff. It is cozy,,, but then people complaint but they were NOT THERE.

[Rex]

27. They must have a school board full of morans, I feel sorry for the kids and parents

in that district. I hope they get the shit sued out of them for violating 1st amendment rights...there is no law that I know of that forbids a teacher from telling the truth.

What a fucking shithole, if I was a student I would demand a transfer to a legitimate school!

[WinkyDink]

30. I can't believe the bugging and surveillance are legal.

[madfloridian]

36. I am not sure they are in the classroom.

They never used to be. I could not let parents take pictures of the class as a whole without permission. The rules were overkill, but they were rules.

[MADem]

49. Columbine happened, what--a decade and a half ago?

If you go to YOUTUBE and type in "Columbine" you will be able to see video footage of children running and screaming while those two assholes shot at them. I won't give you a link because if I put one here, I'll get some noise from the usual crowd of people who can't handle "disturbing images" even though they'd have to actively click on the link and make the decision to roll the footage to get them. If you cannot find the videos, PM me and I will send you the link.

Surveillance has been SOP in schools for a long, LONG time. It's just that the quality of the surveillance is far superior these days, the pictures are very sharp, they're in color, there's often sound to go along with it, and people are shocked at how much DETAIL is available in these images.

But it's not new--not at all.

[Bigmack]

45. That kinda equipment has a LOT of breakdowns...nudge, nudge, wink, wink.... nt