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Education Law

University of Massachusetts School of Law

Privacy

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Privacy Or Safety? The Use Of Cameras To Combat Special Ed Abuse, Sarah M. Benites May 2024

Privacy Or Safety? The Use Of Cameras To Combat Special Ed Abuse, Sarah M. Benites

University of Massachusetts Law Review

Self-contained classroom students face abuse from educators at disproportionate rates compared to general education students. To combat the abuse, several jurisdictions, including Massachusetts, have proposed or enacted bills enabling cameras to be placed in self-contained classrooms. This has sparked privacy concerns, particularly regarding whether the usage would amount to an infringement on the Fourth Amendment rights of students and educators. This note argues that surveillance is an ineffective deterrent to prevent violent and abusive behavior and should not justify bypassing potential privacy and constitutional violations. It outlines the relevant case law regarding students and teachers and apply these standards to …


Ferpa Close-Up: When Video Captures Violence And Injury, Richard J. Peltz-Steele, Kitty L. Cone Jan 2018

Ferpa Close-Up: When Video Captures Violence And Injury, Richard J. Peltz-Steele, Kitty L. Cone

Faculty Publications

Federal privacy law is all to often misconstrued or perverted to preclude the disclosure of video recordings that capture students victimized by violent crime or tortious injury. This misuse of federal law impedes transparency and accountability and, in many cases, even jeopardizes the health, safety, and lives of children. When properly construed, however, federal law is no bar to disclosure and, at least in public schools, works in tandem with freedom of information laws to ensure disclosure. This Article posits that without unequivocal guidance from federal administrative authorities, uncertainty regarding the disclosure of such recordings will continue to linger, jeopardizing …


Guest View: In Defense Of Student Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele Jan 2013

Guest View: In Defense Of Student Privacy, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

Privacy is another American value we rush to sacrifice on the altar of accountability. In Ohio, reporters swarm the yards of liberated kidnapping victims. And in Massachusetts, news trucks besiege the campus at UMass Dartmouth, where I work, and where marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student. Media want to know everything about Tsarnaev and his college friends. The university, bound by federal privacy law, has refused access to student academic and financial aid records.