Focus on relationships, not recording

When classes begin in August, a southeast Iowa public school district will be among the first in the country to equip school personnel with body cameras.

That's one trend we hope other schools don't feel compelled to follow.

The Burlington Community School District has decided that school administrators will be outfitted with the cameras so they can record their conversations with any of the district's 4,300 students or those students' parents.

It's a way to 'ensure all parties are being treated with dignity, honor and respect at all times,” said Burlington Community School District Superintendent Patrick Coen said in a July 7 news release.

We agree that all individuals - students and school personnel - should be treated with dignity and respect in and outside of school settings. We do not agree that adding body cameras to conversations is the right way to ensure that happens.

As we stated in our June editorial regarding local police departments' use of body cameras, body cameras may have a place for collecting evidence and resolving complaints, but they cannot replace relationship building.

Already in the Burlington district, as is the case in many schools, there are cameras installed in school hallways, stairwells and lunch rooms. This type of monitoring is appropriate. Recording private and personal conversations is not.

If administrators are concerned about protecting themselves against parent or student complaints, they can ask a second school official to sit in on any potentially heated interaction.

Body cameras will not build trust between the school and its constituents. Quite the contrary, they may make students and parents feel uncomfortable and unable to have open and honest conversations.

Body cameras will not teach students, parents or school personnel how to behave respectfully toward one another. Further, we would hope school staff would not be prompted to behave appropriately only because their actions are being recorded.

We also have concerns about the $1,100 cost of the 13 cameras. It might not be among the biggest expenditures in the school district budget, still we would much rather see that money used to support student learning.

That's where the focus should be - building an educational environment that is rich in community and respect - not monitoring every movement and conversation.

' Comments: (319) 398-8469; editorial@thegazette.com