Spy Games

Something fishy is going on in Everett, Washington. The school district is currently investigating why a video surveillance camera was installed in teacher Kay Powers' classroom at Cascade High School. It started last Fall when superintendent Carol Whitehead fired Powers for allegedly helping students produce a non-school newspaper. Powers appealed and was rehired in April with back pay. Teachers at Cascade, meantime, had noticed a peculiar-looking object in the ceiling of Powers' classroom. After repeated denials, Whitehead admitted that for two months in the spring of 2007, a surveillance video camera had been monitoring the veteran journalism teacher.

Not taking kindly to being spied on, Everett teachers responded by filing an unfair labor practice complaint, demanding that such surveillance be prohibited. The district soon began an investigation, which so far has not produced any new information about who exactly authorized the surveillance. According to Whitehead, no laws were broken and - guess what? - the recordings in questions are missing.

“An extremely bad comedy” – that's how Kim Mead, president of the Everett Education Association, aptly described the episode. “It should never have taken place.”

Certainly not, but should we be surprised? With video surveillance of students so commonplace in schools throughout the country, it seems inevitable that the cameras' gaze will occasionally be directed toward unsuspecting staff as well.