Den of the Cyphered Wolf

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Privacy, The Press and Special Needs Children

Okay so anybody who reads this blog is knows I record public meetings. It's what I do. And yes there are always some privacy concerns with that but I rationalize them a few ways.


  1. Open Meetings Act
  2. Most of what I record is broadcast on local cable anyway 
  3. The need for transparency in government in my mind trumps a lot of those privacy concerns. I would rather ruffle a few feathers than find out city council raised their salaries  ridiculous amounts and nobody knew.
But at a local school board meeting the board let members of a special needs class sing in front of them. It was a nice gesture. But now I am thinking what should I do with the tape. The songs were copyright so no matter what it's getting cut. Oh yeah Big Time Rush songs. Nick will be on my ass in a hot second. I already back peddled on my old AMVs, which I really liked by the way.  

Regardless I have three competing instincts.

  1. With this sort of thing the parents and students have a right to privacy. I am not a parent and I don't know a lot of people who deal with these sorts of issues but it seems difficult. And I don't want to do anything that makes their lives any harder. 
  2. On the other hand I don't want to whitewash this. A lot of these kids for whole of their lives are going to have to deal with people uncomfortably ignoring them. Do I really want to add to the problem by pretending they don't exist and excising them from my records 1984 style. 
  3. These kids being able to sing in front of the board meant a lot to the parents and the students. But I don't know if that would translate to an internet audience made of snark. 
I should have probably just talked to the parents and asked what they thought but I didn't think of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Facebook Comments

Note: These Comments are from all across this blog.