http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/03/florida-school-suspends-11-year-old-girl-for-video-recording-teacher-threatening-to-hurt-other-student/ An 11-year-old Florida girl was suspended from school after she recorded her fifth-grade teacher threatening and bullying other students.
The evidence Brianna Cooper recorded was enough to get the teacher fired from Samuel Gaines Academy in Fort Pierce, about two hours north of Miami.
But administrators say it was also enough to earn the student a five-day suspension.
After all, they claim, the teacher, had an expectation of privacy in the classroom.*
But how much privacy can a public school teacher expect in a large class filled with students, most of them carrying smart phones?
Do not get caught up in the red herring about kids carrying smart phones.
A school is a public place (although there may be some hoops to jump through to gain admittance).
Teachers are state agents.*
Teachers teaching in a public school are state agents performing their duty in a public place.*
I'm going to guess the teacher thought she was performing some teacherly duty such as trying to maintain/regain discipine.*
I'm not going to get into the legal concept of the duty of a citizen to report official misconduct and present all the available evidence they have for making a charge of misconduct.
Cooper says she gave the recording to a teacher. Then, she says she was called to the principal’s office and suspended.
Faulkner says the school told her recording the audio without the teacher knowing is against the law.
Wonder how much they will settle for when they realize that 1) the Florida wiretap law is not applicable; and 2) taking thje video is not against the law.
stay safe.
eta - FL law on wiretapping explained at
http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/florida-recording-law * Note the "Florida law makes an exception for in-person communications when the parties do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the conversation, such as when they are engaged in conversation in a public place where they might reasonably be overheard" exception to the 2-party structure.