Georgia 8th grader suspended for taking camera out of restroom ceiling
 

Georgia 8th grader suspended for taking camera out of restroom ceiling

(Monticello, GA-AP) December 1, 2005 - An eighth grade student at Jasper County Middle School in middle Georgia has been suspended for five days for removing a camera from the ceiling in the boys' restroom ceiling.

Cindy Champion is the boy's mother, she says she thinks her son, Mack, did the right thing. She's upset his permanent school record will show that he stole school property.

The restroom is shared by Jasper County Middle and High School students. The high school principal put the camera there, apparently to monitor students' behavior.

Mack Champion says he saw the camera in a hole cut in the ceiling tiles and felt students' privacy was being violated by the camera and took it down.

His mother says the middle school principal and teachers were not aware of the camera. She says she told the high school principal he should come up with another way to monitor restroom behavior but that he said he will continue using a camera.

A district attorney says such cameras in public restrooms are legal because schools have leeway on privacy issues.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4187719

He will continue to use something he wasn't aware of?

WTF?

;)

Walk in under an umbrella and destroy the damn thing.......as many times as necessary.

middle school.... high school...ok.
maybe they had the camera there to try and find a writer.

hell, is it just me?

If I were that kid's parent, I'd tell him he did the right thing but to be more careful next time. Putting cameras in the restroom is nuts - just plain nuts.

I especially liked the "...this will go on your [Grand Canyon Echo] P E R M A N E N T R E C O R D [/Echo]. So flippin' what. I'd petition for a search warrant of the principal's residence for evidence of tapes from the camera that he was unaware of but will continue to use just to get it in the public record.

BTW, Radar, how's the Congressional thing going? Is it possible to mount a campaign for public office without going on the corporate dole?

don't steal the cam just uninstall it , take it into the school office , drop it on the counter and say ," I found some PERVERTS secert video cam in the bathroom celing " announce it on the local news , I wounder how much contrversy would be raised over THAT !!!
, hell i bet the boys and GIRLS could sue for invaation of privosey ( spellin ) or get them under some of the voyeur laws that have been passed ,

Prinsiple is getting off on the videos of UNDERAGE , kids comeing and going in the bath room , i WOUNDER what all he sees ??????

I know kids are getting killed in school restrooms but this is just beyond weird! Like zippyt says, WHO keeps these tapes or monitors the activity? :eyebrow: If the purpose is to PREVENT assaults, drug deals, or sexual activity, just TELL the kids there are cameras and have them prominently positioned. Then anybody who is up to dubious behavior will avoid the place and nobody's privacy or civil rights will be violated.

Sometimes I think that our schools are run by people who are so twisted that they are the ones who need psychological counseling rather than the kids.

The dude's a pervert, bottom line (and he does like those little boys' bottoms!) If I were a parent, I'd be screaming holy, bloody hell in 16 different languages. How dare this pedophile so flagrantly engage in his nasty activities?

If the principle is that worried about what may happen at his school, put in one of those security metal detector thingies and make the kids march through it. That ought to use up the better part of homeroom every morning which is always a boring non-entity of a class, anyhow. Assign male teachers to pee-pee duty and let them lean against the wall in the restroom during class breaks and lunch hours if the principle is so concerned.

Better yet, have a video cam installed in the restroom he uses and have the boys from the 10th grade shop class monitor it. That should be good for a few laughs!

Hell, if I were the kid who took the video cam out, I'd headline it on any future resume's or job applications. "Showed courage of conviction by removing pedophile's video cam." Damn straight I want that on my record!

Are kids getting killed in bathrooms? It is more likely he's a control freak,(insert anti-gov prop here) not a perv. As Algore once said, "It's time for him to go."

Yes, they are. There have been at least two high-profile cases I remember this year. The restroom is also the school ambush place of choice for gang members :neutral:

Is that a CA thing, bathroom murders? :confused:

Actually, I don't remember if either of these was in CA. Maybe I should google it. I do remember that the latest kid's mom was going to sue the school district (of course).

http://archives.thedaily.washington....irestoryO.html
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-dher...,2696043.story
http://www.svrc.net/ShootingsMap.htm#Memphis
http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends...ence04-05.html

Santee, CA
Miami, FL
Memphis, TN
Highland Falls, NY

It's not just "smoking in the boy's room" that they want to prevent anymore, nowdays it's drug deals, bullying, and sexual encounters which school administrators are obsessed with stopping. What ever happened to those Hall Monitors who had that job when I was in the public school system? And it should be more than clear that the hallways are the best place to get killed in today's schools anyway, so where are the cameras there?

Am I the only one who doesn't see anything wrong with this? You can be absolutely sure that the camera didn't point into the stalls or get any footage that could be close to construed as pornographic. This story would be all about that if it did. Many public restrooms also have cameras in them for security reasons. The kid wasn't necessarily wrong in taking it down, although I think he was wrong to steal it. He should have simply disabled it or returned it to the school office if he wanted to make a statement. But in the end, that's all it gets to be, is a statement, and maybe a public relations nightmare. The school has every legal right to put the camera there as long as it's not pointed at the stalls or urinals.