Rep. Sells fights spying on students, teachers

A couple of years ago an English and Journalism Cascade High School teacher was fired because a hidden camera caught her in the act… of helping students put together an underground newspaper.

According to Everett lawmaker, Rep. Mike Sells, the school made a big mistake secretly videotaping teachers and students. Sells has introduced HB 1262 requiring school districts to notify students, teachers and school staff if they’re under video surveillance.

“The point here is not whether the students’ paper should have gone underground to avoid censoring by school district officials, nor if the teacher and her students were violating any rules,” said Sells, “the point of my bill is that regardless of what they were working on in that classroom, they should have been notified that there was a chance they’d be on camera.”

Sells' bill awaits a hearing in the House Education Committee.