Southlake Carroll employees now prohibited from secretly recording meetings
Employees in the Southlake Carroll school district are now prohibited from secretly recording conversations or meetings.
The school board voted 7-0 Monday in favor of an update to the district’s employee personal conduct policy that requires employees to notify all participants in a conversation or meeting if they are going to record it. Recording devices also must be in plain view.
The policy change came about after a teacher recorded a training session in which an administrator told teachers that if they have books about the Holocaust in their classrooms, they must also have materials with opposing views.
Superintendent Lane Ledbetter later apologized and said there are not two sides when talking about the Holocaust.
Gordon Butler, assistant superintendent for student and staff services, said other area districts, including Dallas, have similar recording policies.
“You can record, but you have to tell us that you’re recording,” he said during the board meeting.
A trustee asked what the consequences are if an employee violates the policy.
Butler said administrators would have a conversation with the employee, and depending on the context of the recording, the district would take the necessary steps to discipline the employee.
“But I have the positive presupposition that people are going to comply because we are telling people in advance, here’s our standards,” he said.
But trustee Andrew Yeager questioned Butler further.
“People have made recordings and have taken them to the media. I don’t want that to happen, and I want there to be a very clear understanding of what the consequences of that are,” he said
Butler said there is not a “blanket consequence.” Like student discipline, it depends on the circumstances, Butler said.
“What is their track record with us? Is this the first time they’ve been in trouble with us and how egregious is it? I think recording in secret and going to the media, and I feel safe to say, and I think we’re all in agreement that that would be pretty egregious and that would be handled one way as versus recording and saying, Oh, I was just doing it for my own documentation,” Butler said.