Missouri student who videotaped teachers’ racist rant didn’t deserve suspension

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A teacher repeatedly used a racial epithet in a class in southwestern Missouri last week. Disturbed by what she heard, a student turned on her cell phone camera to record the behavior. His reward for the denunciation? Incredibly, a suspension.

The smartphone video shot at Springfields Glendale High School was disconcerting, the student’s mother told reporters. In footage circulating on social media, the teacher is heard using a racial slur twice. He is said to have uttered the word despicable at least six times—actions unbecoming of a public educator.

Once the district became aware of the incident, the teacher was immediately removed from class, and it was the right thing to do. The anonymous educator has since resigned. And rightly so. Weren’t sad to see him go.

However, Springfield Public Schools officials erred in suspending the student for three days for misusing an electronic device.

The 15-year-old was due to return to school on Wednesday, her mother said. She did nothing wrong by recording the teachers’ hateful rhetoric in class.

The teenager should have been praised, in fact. Instead, she has a blemish on her young academic record that could hamper college prospects or post-secondary options.

The students’ mother and the family’s attorney want the district to rescind the three-day suspension, a reasonable request that school officials will not grant, according to the family.

The student also has the support of the Radio Television Digital News Association. In a letter to Superintendent Grenita Lathan, National Business Groups President and CEO Dan Shelley called on the district to reconsider the suspension. It should.

The right of citizens to record activity in public places has been repeatedly upheld in court, Shelley said, adding that the district’s general policy on the use of electronic devices infringes on those rights.

The student says she was recording the teachers’ alleged racist remarks for the express purpose of recording the incident in case the events in class at the time were disputed, Shelley wrote. In our view, that makes her a legal whistleblower, not a criminal. She should be praised, not punished.

The story continues

The privacy of other minors in the video could have been violated, said the student’s mother, Kate Wellborn. In a statement, district officials supported the suspension.

The punishment was harsh and unwarranted, Wellborn argues. She thinks her daughter did a good deed. Mom is not wrong.

All sorts of First Amendment issues are at play here. The right to freedom of expression does not disappear inside a classroom. We follow the district electronics policy. The privacy of other students, faculty and staff is important. But no one should be penalized for exercising a constitutional right.

Punishing someone in this situation for doing the right thing is absurd, Wellborn told reporters.

The comments expressed in the video were inappropriate and did not meet professional standards for the districts of Springfield, Glendale Superintendent Josh Groves wrote last week in a message to district stakeholders. It doesn’t make sense to punish the student who brought the comments to light, does it?

Public schools in Springfield and other districts need to learn from this: Be flexible enough with your policy so that whistleblowers are not punished for presenting compelling evidence that an employee in a position of great influence over young people taken into charging by the schools violated the rules.

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