Teachers Union taking legal action to obtain CVUSD hidden camera report
As we reported in March, parents, teachers, and students of the Coachella Valley Unified School District were disturbed to learn of a hidden camera discovered in a local classroom at Saul Martinez Elementary School.
Six weeks after CVUSD teachers were asked to “report any hidden cameras” they might find in their classrooms, the district addressed the issue in a letter, acknowledging the results of an outside investigation which found that a camera approved by a classroom teacher and principal to catch intruder was mistakenly placed at the wrong school.
News Channel 3 has asked the district for the full report on hidden cameras and so has the CVUSD Teachers Union.
“What’s suspicious is how they’re releasing pieces, what they want us to know,” said Clarissa Carrera, president of the CVUSD teachers union.
Carrera said that teachers are frustrated by the lack of transparency into this investigation and into security at the district.
“I would like to see proper consequences given to the people involved, but they’re withholding that information from us. we don’t know who was involved. so that way we have no way to see if anything was done about this or if it was just swept under the rug,” Carrera said.
After months of trying, News Channel 3’s Brooke Beare was finally able to reach Fred Gonzalez today, he is still listed as the district’s director of security. Gonzalez wouldn’t comment about his employment status at CVUSD.
When the first camera was discovered in a classroom at Saul Martinez Elementary in March, we tried to go to him for answers but Gonzalez was not reachable.
We’ve asked the district on multiple occasions, who is running security at the district? Their answer, “The District cannot answer this question as it relates to confidential personnel matters.”
“It’s concerning that they claim that it’s a personnel matter and we can’t see the report and we can’t get the details, but they pick and chose certain details that they are releasing,” Carrera said. “It’s either confidential or it’s not confidential.”
The district also cited “confidential personnel matters” when asked if any disciplinary action was taken regarding any part of the camera investigation or if a camera was ever placed in the correct classroom.
The district told us “Education Code 51512 specifies teacher and principal permission only” is required to put cameras in the classroom.
We looked at that code, it also requires the recording be for an educational purpose, but that doesn’t change any other laws about secret recordings.
“Basically they’re saying as long as the principal agrees and the teachers agree they can place cameras in classrooms with the kids and as a parent myself with kids in school, I would be very uncomfortable with that. I would want to know that my son was being recorded in his classroom,” Carrera said.
The letter released by the district does not address the second hidden camera which was installed in district offices. They did confirm that as of now, there are no more hidden cameras in place inside CVUSD classrooms.
