The River Valley School District approves the use of video cameras on school buses for the primary purpose of reducing disciplinary problems and vandalism on the bus, thereby allowing the driver to focus on the driving of the bus and providing for safer transportation of students.
Parents shall be notified once a year via student handbooks and the annual "Back to School" newspaper publication that video cameras are being used on the buses, and a sign shall be placed at the front of each bus indicating that video cameras are present.
The bus company shall determine the rotation of the video camera and will maintain a log with dates, bus numbers and bus drivers. Bus drivers do not need to be informed on which bus the video camera is operating. Individual drivers, administrators and parents/guardians may request that the video camera be on a specific bus on designated dates (to be decided by River Valley Administration).
Only the bus company manager, bus drivers, administrators of the district and school board members shall be authorized to view the videotape for the purpose of documenting a problem and determining which students may be involved. Disciplinary action may be taken with students based on a video documentation. The isolated segment of the videotape that documents the incident may be viewed by the identified student and his/her parent/guardian. The bus company designee or school administrators shall view the videotape with the student and parent/guardian and document the date and names of all individuals viewing the videotape.
The videotape shall not be available for viewing by the public in general, the media or other individuals. The school administration may authorize other individuals such as a guidance counselor, school psychologist or social worker to view segments of a specific videotape if such individuals are working with the student on the videotape because of a behavioral, emotional or learning problem and viewing the videotape is beneficial to their role in assisting the student. A log shall be kept of the date and names of the individuals viewing the videotape.
If there are no reported bus problems pertaining to the date a videotape was recorded, the bus company may erase or re-use the videotape after ten school days. If there was a bus problem recorded on videotape, that tape will be kept until approved by River Valley Administration to re-use.
LEGAL REF.: Wis. Statutes Section 118.25
CROSS REF.: Policy #347 - Student Records
Policy #751.3 - Bus Rules and Regulations
APPROVED: July 13, 1995
12/21/2004 pw