Westwood schools move to ban unauthorized recording of teachers, students

The Westwood Regional School District board continued to unwind changes made by a previous parental rights majority, voting this week to begin scrapping a policy that limited opinions teachers could give on "controversial issues."

The new board also proposed rules limiting the recording of teachers and school staff without their permission. Although it wasn't mentioned during Monday's discussion, conservative media figure James O'Keefe threatened last year to distribute hidden cameras to students to fight what he said was political indoctrination in the district.

On Monday night, the board voted 6-3 to consider a revised version of Westwood Regional's controversial issues policy, which sets limits on how teachers are supposed to handle discussion of material not already approved in the curriculum. The proposal, which still must pass a second vote, would undo stricter limits put in place by the conservative majority that was in charge last year.

Jay Garcia, Heather Perin, Loni Azzolina, Jorge Pertuz, Andrea Peck and Nicole Martin voted for the move, while Kristen Pedersen, Laura Cooper and Doug Cusato — holdovers from last year's board — opposed it.

The move is just the latest attempt to reverse policies adopted last year, after months of heated board meetings and a November election in which four so-called parental rights candidates were defeated. The board also voted at Monday's meeting to revoke a parental notification rule and reinstate privacy protections for transgender students.

The K-12 district includes about 2,800 students from Washington Township and Westwood.

Limits on 'controversial issues'

Last summer, the former majority updated an existing “controversial issues” policy that added stricter language about teachers expressing personal opinions as well as a requirement that parents be notified when such conversations arise. The ordinance introduced Monday would revert the policy to its pre-2023 state.

Perin, who teaches in the River Dell Regional School District, was a vocal opponent of the changes last year, before she was elected. The language threatened to stifle the ability to teach students about how to make and write good arguments, she said. She also bristled at the idea of muzzling teachers.

“We are people, too. We are not robots,” Perin said Monday. “A teacher can give their opinion as long as it is stated as such and no attempt is made to persuade others of that opinion.”

Cooper, who wanted to keep the stricter wording, said she “never quite understood” why teachers need to give their opinions rather than “ensure balanced, objective feedback.”

More: 3 North Jersey school districts reverse bids to jettison transgender student safeguards

“It does not stifle writing, it does not stifle passionate debate on any controversial issue but rather ensures objective representation,” she said. “I find it troubling that there’s such a push for anyone to give their personal opinion that is not a student, that is meant to debate the issue, in the classroom.”

Secret recordings and privacy rights

By another 6-3 vote, the board also advanced a policy that would prohibit "any audio or video recording" of a teacher, support staff or student "while a teaching staff member is performing their board-assigned job responsibilities without the prior written approval of the teaching staff member’s principal or supervisor."

Superintendent Jill Mortimer did not mention O'Keefe's hidden-camera offer, which was made during a raucous board meeting last summer over whether to allow LGBTQ+ pride signs outside district buildings. Rather, she said the district wanted to adopt a right-to-privacy rule suggested by education-policy consultant Strauss Esmay Associates after Westwood officials realized they lacked such a policy.

That “got on our radar because Strauss Esmay provided districts with a revised version last fall,” Mortimer said, and she “felt the board should adopt it.”

Cooper, who voted against the proposal, said it was a "poor situation" where a student needs to record a teacher. But with the proposed change to the “controversial issues” policy, she said she was concerned that authority figures in the district would be able to “inject their point of view into a conversation.”

Penalties for students?

“If a student is uncomfortable with it and they try to demonstrate that this is happening in the classroom, they are unable to, as much as I don’t like the idea of that,” Cooper said.

She also questioned what consequences a student could face, since New Jersey law allows recording as long as one party to a conversation consents.

Board Attorney Vittorio LaPira said students who record would face only a “school-based consequence,” because it would not violate any criminal code.

“There are some things that school districts will prohibit that might otherwise be permissible outside of school and there are limits to those things, but this is one that is fairly common in most school districts,” LaPira said.

Parental rights

A new “parental rights” policy adopted by last year’s board was also rescinded on Monday. That policy required the district to notify parents when children display behavior deemed harmful, though it also added that notification cannot be based solely on characteristics protected by the state's anti-discrimination law, including race, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Cooper, who supported the notification requirement, said it was “no threat to anyone other than people who are threatened by parents being deeply involved in their children’s lives at school.” Pedersen agreed, saying existing policies didn’t cover “anxiety-like or depression-like” behavior.

But Peck cited the superintendent’s advice that “almost all these things are covered” by guidelines already in place and that there is parental notification when “any infraction of code of conduct happened.”

Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: noda@northjersey.com; Twitter: @snoda11

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Westwood NJ schools move to ban secret recordings of teachers