Teacher taking pictures of student to document behavior

[Anonymous]

This isn't a question of distribution as much as it is a question of being sensitive to a child with a potential disability. OP hasn't said that the child is identified as a SN child... but the question involved taking a pic + in front of other children + during a sensitive moment for the child.

I would want to know how OP got wind of this situation... was the child traumatized and said something to the parent about how they felt about it? Or did the teacher hand her a pic? If I got a pic of my child crying/tantruming, I would feel terrible on many levels... bc the class was disrupted and bc I was seeing a moment of pain/upset on my child's face. This deserves sensitivity.

[Anonymous]

This isn't a question of distribution as much as it is a question of being sensitive to a child with a potential disability. OP hasn't said that the child is identified as a SN child... but the question involved taking a pic + in front of other children + during a sensitive moment for the child.

I would want to know how OP got wind of this situation... was the child traumatized and said something to the parent about how they felt about it? Or did the teacher hand her a pic? If I got a pic of my child crying/tantruming, I would feel terrible on many levels... bc the class was disrupted and bc I was seeing a moment of pain/upset on my child's face. This deserves sensitivity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This isn't a question of distribution as much as it is a question of being sensitive to a child with a potential disability. OP hasn't said that the child is identified as a SN child... but the question involved taking a pic + in front of other children + during a sensitive moment for the child.

I would want to know how OP got wind of this situation... was the child traumatized and said something to the parent about how they felt about it? Or did the teacher hand her a pic? If I got a pic of my child crying/tantruming, I would feel terrible on many levels... bc the class was disrupted and bc I was seeing a moment of pain/upset on my child's face. This deserves sensitivity.

I don't think any of us can give much information without context. Is OP in denial about behaviors or did the teacher do this without ever discussing the behaviors with parents? Is OP in a battle with the school right now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is not even the issue. Of course OP wants to know what's up with her child. That doesn't mean she needs to accept any type of treatment of her child that yields the knowledge of what's going on. A picture doesn't tell you what's going on in any case... what are the behavioral antecedents? A photo doesn't tell you that. It just shows you a child in meltdown. It humiliates the child. It singles him out.

I'm sorry. I missed where OP said the pictures were of her DC having a meltdown and that it was humiliating, singling the child out. Can you point me to that post? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

The animosity this forum has for teachers really bugs me. Yes, some teachers are lousy with SN (or NT) kids. But so many parents on this forum spend so much time in adversarial mode and always assume the worst of teachers. No wonder teachers then put up their defenses. My experience in my son's (short) life has been a lot of concerned and kind teachers and administrators -- even if they didn't always do exactly what i needed, i knew they were doing what they thought was in the best interest of my son. And he's been a very tough kid to deal with.

When i read the OP's very brief post, i assumed the kid was having a behavioral problem that the teacher wanted to document for the parents -- and given that OP is mad about it, i assumed it was something OP was in denial about. When op said it was in front of the class, i didnt' assume in a humiliating way. Lots of things can happen in a 1st grade class, for example, that are in front of the class but that not a single other kid is paying attention to.

I also thought OP sounded really aggressive in her anger about some facts that worst case don't merit much anger. Angry enough that if there were other bad facts to include, she would have included them. The fact that she is light on facts leads me to think the context of this photo was not a big deal.

Point is: poor teacher who has to deal with parents like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is not even the issue. Of course OP wants to know what's up with her child. That doesn't mean she needs to accept any type of treatment of her child that yields the knowledge of what's going on. A picture doesn't tell you what's going on in any case... what are the behavioral antecedents? A photo doesn't tell you that. It just shows you a child in meltdown. It humiliates the child. It singles him out.

I'm sorry. I missed where OP said the pictures were of her DC having a meltdown and that it was humiliating, singling the child out. Can you point me to that post? Thanks.

+1. I'm the PP who said my son's K teacher took video to show the context of his issues, and yes it was in the class with all the other kids. My kid was unaware, as were other kids, and not humiliated. You people are being drama queens.

[Anonymous]

It's inappropriate for the teacher to handle this in this way. It is clear that the teacher lacks training. Op ask for an IEP meeting and discuss the behavior issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The animosity this forum has for teachers really bugs me. Yes, some teachers are lousy with SN (or NT) kids. But so many parents on this forum spend so much time in adversarial mode and always assume the worst of teachers. No wonder teachers then put up their defenses. My experience in my son's (short) life has been a lot of concerned and kind teachers and administrators -- even if they didn't always do exactly what i needed, i knew they were doing what they thought was in the best interest of my son. And he's been a very tough kid to deal with.

When i read the OP's very brief post, i assumed the kid was having a behavioral problem that the teacher wanted to document for the parents -- and given that OP is mad about it, i assumed it was something OP was in denial about. When op said it was in front of the class, i didnt' assume in a humiliating way. Lots of things can happen in a 1st grade class, for example, that are in front of the class but that not a single other kid is paying attention to.

I also thought OP sounded really aggressive in her anger about some facts that worst case don't merit much anger. Angry enough that if there were other bad facts to include, she would have included them. The fact that she is light on facts leads me to think the context of this photo was not a big deal.

Point is: poor teacher who has to deal with parents like this.

You are very lucky. The school is not doing what is in my child's best interests and they know it. They want to make it about their needs and agenda and not his.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's inappropriate for the teacher to handle this in this way. It is clear that the teacher lacks training. Op ask for an IEP meeting and discuss the behavior issues.

I'm a teacher, and whether I think this is appropriate depends on several factors.

1) Whether it was done in a way that other students knew about it.

2) What the nature of the infraction was.

3) Whether parents had a history of disbelieving previous reported behavior.

For example, before cell phone cameras were common, I had some students who were caught writing crude words on furniture. I can imagine asking a student to stay back, and at a private time (with an adult witness, and/or the door to the classroom open) photographing the crude words before the student washed the furniture. Student would know that the image would be sent to their parents. I probably wouldn't include the child in the image, but I might ask the child to put their finger next to the word.

I've also had parents who have blinders on when it comes to their child's behavior. For example, a friend of mine once had a kindergartener drop to the ground in the middle of a busy street when coming back from a trip to the park, because she wanted to keep playing. When she reported to the parent that she had lifted the child and carried them to the side of the road, the parents went ballistic stating that they should have called them to come deal with the situation. If this had happened again, I could imagine, as the second staff member standing on the sidewalk with the other children waiting, snapping a picture so that parents could see the danger of the situation, and the way that it didn't allow the staff member to wait the 20 minutes it would have taken for the parent to arrive. I would have snapped other pictures, of other kids waiting, etc . . . to keep the other kindergarteners from knowing what I was doing.

Having given those two examples, I can also think of plenty of ways that a teacher could use taking photographs as a tool to shame a child, which is never appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a kindergartener drop to the ground in the middle of a busy street when coming back from a trip to the park, because she wanted to keep playing. When she reported to the parent that she had lifted the child and carried them to the side of the road, the parents went ballistic stating that they should have called them to come deal with the situation.

[Anonymous]

At our school everyone signs a waiver that students can be videoed or photographed at school. If OP signed this, then that is consent to photos being taken in class by the teacher.

[Anonymous]

I had this concern. Our school used TS Gold to document milestones/outcomes, and the platform encourages teachers to document by uploading photographs and videos. This was just supposed to be for things like an outcome of "child exhibits pre-writing skills" and a video showing the child writing.

This bothered me for a couple reasons. First, the PK teachers were *constantly* on their phones documenting the 25 different items for 16 kids. It was ridiculous. Second, TS Gold was a third-party app and I had no idea how they were storing data or what they would do with it. (Sell pictures of my child? Analyze his records?). I felt I had never consented to that.

Most importantly though, I did not trust those particular teachers to use the pictures correctly. They had very weird ideas about behavior and student privacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they don’t allow students to use their camera phones during school hours, the same rule should be applied to teachers and other school staff.

DCPS ECE teacher here. I'm literally required to use an app on my phone to document what skills my students have mastered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they don’t allow students to use their camera phones during school hours, the same rule should be applied to teachers and other school staff.

DCPS ECE teacher here. I'm literally required to use an app on my phone to document what skills my students have mastered.

yes, this was what I posted about above! Is this a DCPS requirement or the school? I think it's really terrible. You have to be on the phone constantly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they don’t allow students to use their camera phones during school hours, the same rule should be applied to teachers and other school staff.

DCPS ECE teacher here. I'm literally required to use an app on my phone to document what skills my students have mastered.

yes, this was what I posted about above! Is this a DCPS requirement or the school? I think it's really terrible. You have to be on the phone constantly!

That's insane. How did that even become a requirement?