You know the law needs some work when the big, bad criminal in a case where a teacher threatened a student’s life is an 11-year-old with a cell phone.
After several incidents involving threats from her teacher, 11-year-old Brianna Cooper decided to film her teacher inside the classroom to have proof of how the teacher interacted with the students.
Local news station WSVN in Florida reports:
In another part of the recording the teacher is heard belittling another student. “Biggest kid in the fifth grade and you acting like the smallest one,” she is heard saying.
“I thought I did the right thing,” said Brianna.
Her video led to the firing of that teacher. “I do think it’s a good thing that this teacher is gone,” said Kassie Faulkner, the girl’s mother.”
But despite the positive effect of the video, it’s Brianna that is facing some of the fallout. She has been suspended from school because she “illegally” recorded the teacher, according to WSVN.
In Florida it is illegal to record somebody without their knowledge if there’s an expectation of privacy and the school argues that a classroom meets those requirements.
But attorney Michelle Suskauer told the TV station that it mostly just brings to light the outdated laws. Florida’s whistleblower laws only protect employees, not this “11-year-old who is trying to do the right thing.”
And it shows that the laws don’t match up to current technology. Everyone has a cell phone in their pocket these days, she told the news outlet.
“We have not caught up legally with what is happening technologically,” Suskauer said.
