EFFINGHAM COUNTY, GA - Over the past several years, due to limited incidents where police used excessive force, it has become vogue to equip officers with body-worn cameras. This follows years ago when in-car cameras were used to record traffic stops.
In both cases, however, the videos obtained from the cameras didn’t accomplish what their proponents were hoping—“proving” that police target minorities and, in so doing, use excessive force.
In most cases, video proved what law enforcement officers have been saying all along…that police do not “target” minorities, nor do an overwhelming majority use excessive force.
More recently, there has been a call to place video cameras in places where we put our most vulnerable for six or seven hours per day—our classrooms. It wasn’t until COVID-19, when remote learning became the norm that parents were exposed to what some children were taught in the classroom. And in many cases, parents were shocked at what they witnessed.
According to Newsweek, Effingham County, GA Elementary schools will have security cameras installed in every elementary school classroom. That follows an expenditure of $2 million to install cameras in high school classrooms; middle school schools will follow along.
The move to in-classroom cameras is being touted as part of new “safety initiatives” being implemented and spun to “highlight exemplary teachers,” the Savannah Morning News reported.
The move in Georgia follows legislation passed by Republicans in Iowa and Florida, mandating video cameras be installed in schools across both states. Supporters believe having cameras in classrooms will “increase the role of parents” with the added benefit of seeing what teachers teach their children. Critics rue the move, claiming it is intended to “spy” on teachers. On that note, they are probably right.
Effingham County School Board Superintendent Yancy Ford said of the cameras, “We examined the safety initiatives we had in place and decided to dedicate resources to ramp up security measures within the school.”
He continued, “As we continue to look at ways we can support teachers and students from a safety standpoint, we felt like cameras in the classroom would be the next step. We have always had cameras in common areas through the school, but the classroom cameras would be an added safety feature.”
Ford also said the cameras would act as a deterrent against bullying and would “highlight exemplary teachers.”
When asked if parental permission would be necessary to record children, Ford claimed that the student-parent handbook addressed the issue.
“There is no expectation of privacy on buses nor in the public areas of Effingham County Schools. Video cameras may be placed on buses, classrooms, and in the public areas of the campuses of Effingham County Schools.”
Parents have been at odds with schools for the past three years, or since Joe Biden became president. Tired of their children being taught concepts like critical race theory and radical gender theory, parents have started to fight back. And they have received the support of state legislatures, with at least 12 states introducing bills requiring educators to post teaching materials, including books and videos, on the web, according to the New York Post.
Last year, Biden drew sharp criticism while appearing before a teacher’s group, telling the educators,” They’re all our children. They are not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”
Randi Weingarten, the unhinged radical head of the American Federation of Teachers, has smeared concerned parents as “political extremists.”
As part of COVID “relief” funds, Congressional Democrats included $46 billion to teach critical race theory, $9 billion in New York alone.
The Biden administration took the “political extremists” angle to another level when far-left Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum to local FBI field offices in which he referred to concerned school parents as extremists who merited extra attention.
Last year, the Daily Signal cited a report where the author, Will Flanders of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, said there was “a huge amount of liberal indoctrination going on” in American universities, including those where students are studying to be elementary school teachers. “We found it across every public university in the state that has an education program.”
Flanders said universities teach “radical gender theory to children as young as three.” At UW-Whitewater, education majors are told to include LGBTQ “lessons with a three-year-old day care center.”
When some police officers balked at having body-worn cameras, many on the left wondered what they “have to hide.” The same question can be asked of educators who oppose cameras in the classroom. If they aren’t trying to hide something, what is the issue?
In 2022, the Iowa legislature introduced a bill requiring cameras in every public school classroom in the state, except for special education and physical education classes, NBC News reported. The footage would be broadcast by live stream and made available to parents. School staff members would be subject to fines of up to 5% of their weekly salary if they attempted to “obstruct” the cameras.
Officials from the National Education Association told NBC that the cameras were intended to censor what was taught.
“Some politicians around the country want to limit not only what history our kids can learn about and what books they can read, censor the truth of our history in some cases, and, now in Iowa, they want to install classroom cameras for live monitoring of teachers,” said Becky Pringle, president of the NEA.
What Pringle fails to mention is the “history” she claims is being “censored” is claptrap such as the “1619 Project,” a pile of steaming cow dung authored by Nikole Hannah Jones, which claims American history did not begin with the Revolutionary War and our independence from Britain in 1776, but instead in 1619, when she claims the first slaves arrived on the North American continent.
Pringle also fails to mention the books of concern, including a number that deal with virtual pornographic gay sex, including illustrations…for elementary school students. Parents don’t want their children exposed to those kinds of books.
Then there is the left’s sudden obsession with attempting to transition children from the gender they were born, telling children they can “choose” to be whatever gender they want, not the one they were “assigned” at birth.
That is why putting cameras in schools makes sense.
In the cases of Iowa and Florida, the legislation to mandate in-school cameras did not make it out of committee, which is a shame because it is worth considering.
However, Florida took a different approach, with the Florida State Legislature passing a bill to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in classrooms, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed. DeSantis also signed the Parental Rights in Education law, which prohibits education on sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade. The bill has since been extended to the end of 12th grade.
With that in mind, where state legislatures refuse to act, local school districts need to ensure that teachers educate our children in reading, writing, math, and other core subjects. Our country is falling behind other countries, such as China because our educational system is more interested in pushing woke political ideology than doing what they should be doing…educating our kids.
In both cases, however, the videos obtained from the cameras didn’t accomplish what their proponents were hoping—“proving” that police target minorities and, in so doing, use excessive force.
In most cases, video proved what law enforcement officers have been saying all along…that police do not “target” minorities, nor do an overwhelming majority use excessive force.
More recently, there has been a call to place video cameras in places where we put our most vulnerable for six or seven hours per day—our classrooms. It wasn’t until COVID-19, when remote learning became the norm that parents were exposed to what some children were taught in the classroom. And in many cases, parents were shocked at what they witnessed.
According to Newsweek, Effingham County, GA Elementary schools will have security cameras installed in every elementary school classroom. That follows an expenditure of $2 million to install cameras in high school classrooms; middle school schools will follow along.
The move to in-classroom cameras is being touted as part of new “safety initiatives” being implemented and spun to “highlight exemplary teachers,” the Savannah Morning News reported.
The move in Georgia follows legislation passed by Republicans in Iowa and Florida, mandating video cameras be installed in schools across both states. Supporters believe having cameras in classrooms will “increase the role of parents” with the added benefit of seeing what teachers teach their children. Critics rue the move, claiming it is intended to “spy” on teachers. On that note, they are probably right.
Effingham County School Board Superintendent Yancy Ford said of the cameras, “We examined the safety initiatives we had in place and decided to dedicate resources to ramp up security measures within the school.”
He continued, “As we continue to look at ways we can support teachers and students from a safety standpoint, we felt like cameras in the classroom would be the next step. We have always had cameras in common areas through the school, but the classroom cameras would be an added safety feature.”
Ford also said the cameras would act as a deterrent against bullying and would “highlight exemplary teachers.”
When asked if parental permission would be necessary to record children, Ford claimed that the student-parent handbook addressed the issue.
“There is no expectation of privacy on buses nor in the public areas of Effingham County Schools. Video cameras may be placed on buses, classrooms, and in the public areas of the campuses of Effingham County Schools.”
Parents have been at odds with schools for the past three years, or since Joe Biden became president. Tired of their children being taught concepts like critical race theory and radical gender theory, parents have started to fight back. And they have received the support of state legislatures, with at least 12 states introducing bills requiring educators to post teaching materials, including books and videos, on the web, according to the New York Post.
Last year, Biden drew sharp criticism while appearing before a teacher’s group, telling the educators,” They’re all our children. They are not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”
Randi Weingarten, the unhinged radical head of the American Federation of Teachers, has smeared concerned parents as “political extremists.”
As part of COVID “relief” funds, Congressional Democrats included $46 billion to teach critical race theory, $9 billion in New York alone.
The Biden administration took the “political extremists” angle to another level when far-left Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum to local FBI field offices in which he referred to concerned school parents as extremists who merited extra attention.
Last year, the Daily Signal cited a report where the author, Will Flanders of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, said there was “a huge amount of liberal indoctrination going on” in American universities, including those where students are studying to be elementary school teachers. “We found it across every public university in the state that has an education program.”
Flanders said universities teach “radical gender theory to children as young as three.” At UW-Whitewater, education majors are told to include LGBTQ “lessons with a three-year-old day care center.”
When some police officers balked at having body-worn cameras, many on the left wondered what they “have to hide.” The same question can be asked of educators who oppose cameras in the classroom. If they aren’t trying to hide something, what is the issue?
In 2022, the Iowa legislature introduced a bill requiring cameras in every public school classroom in the state, except for special education and physical education classes, NBC News reported. The footage would be broadcast by live stream and made available to parents. School staff members would be subject to fines of up to 5% of their weekly salary if they attempted to “obstruct” the cameras.
Officials from the National Education Association told NBC that the cameras were intended to censor what was taught.
“Some politicians around the country want to limit not only what history our kids can learn about and what books they can read, censor the truth of our history in some cases, and, now in Iowa, they want to install classroom cameras for live monitoring of teachers,” said Becky Pringle, president of the NEA.
What Pringle fails to mention is the “history” she claims is being “censored” is claptrap such as the “1619 Project,” a pile of steaming cow dung authored by Nikole Hannah Jones, which claims American history did not begin with the Revolutionary War and our independence from Britain in 1776, but instead in 1619, when she claims the first slaves arrived on the North American continent.
Pringle also fails to mention the books of concern, including a number that deal with virtual pornographic gay sex, including illustrations…for elementary school students. Parents don’t want their children exposed to those kinds of books.
Then there is the left’s sudden obsession with attempting to transition children from the gender they were born, telling children they can “choose” to be whatever gender they want, not the one they were “assigned” at birth.
That is why putting cameras in schools makes sense.
In the cases of Iowa and Florida, the legislation to mandate in-school cameras did not make it out of committee, which is a shame because it is worth considering.
However, Florida took a different approach, with the Florida State Legislature passing a bill to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in classrooms, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed. DeSantis also signed the Parental Rights in Education law, which prohibits education on sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade. The bill has since been extended to the end of 12th grade.
With that in mind, where state legislatures refuse to act, local school districts need to ensure that teachers educate our children in reading, writing, math, and other core subjects. Our country is falling behind other countries, such as China because our educational system is more interested in pushing woke political ideology than doing what they should be doing…educating our kids.
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