California Ed Code and Audio/ Video Recording in the Classroom

If anyone finds my old blog, I thought I would post something here. You can still find me at my new blog at bryanfarleyphotography.


At the Journalism Education Association, we discussed how students secretly taped a classroom discussion and distributed the video online. Last year, some of my students might remember our conversation about this issue. (Someone might have recorded me becoming upset about the violation.) In case some of you thought I was making up a state law, here is the specific ed code. Other states differ on this issue.


California Education Code 51512

51512.  The Legislature finds that the use by any person, including
a pupil, of any electronic listening or recording device in any
classroom of the elementary and secondary schools without the prior
consent of the teacher and the principal of the school given to
promote an educational purpose disrupts and impairs the teaching
process and discipline in the elementary and secondary schools, and
such use is prohibited. Any person, other than a pupil, who willfully
violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
   Any pupil violating this section shall be subject to appropriate
disciplinary action.
   This section shall not be construed as affecting the powers,
rights, and liabilities arising from the use of electronic listening
or recording devices as provided for by any other provision of law.

With an interesting story from PBS