A North Texas school district that came under fire after a secret recording got out is working to prevent a repeat occurrence.
In Southlake, the Carroll ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved a new rule for teachers and staffers Monday, prohibiting them from secretly recording meetings.
Gordon Butler, assistant superintendent for staff and student services, says the new rule does not prevent them from recording all together.
"You can record, but you just have to tell us that you're recording," Butler told the trustees. "If I say, 'I'm going to record,' and my team was like, 'No thank you,' they're just not going to have the meeting."
The new rule comes as the district remains in full damage control mode after an administrator was secretly recorded telling teachers to, for example, have books on both sides of the Holocaust in order to comply with a new state law.
Newly-elected trustee Andrew Yeager alluded to that in expressing his support for the new rule.
"People have made recordings (and) taking them to the media," said Yeager. "I don't want that to happen."
Butler said consequences would vary, depending on the context.
"I think recording in secret and then going into the media - I feel safe to say that I think we're all in agreement that that's pretty egregious, and so that would be handled one way," says Butler, "versus recording and then saying, 'Well, I was just doing it for my own documentation.'"
Other districts have similar rules
When asked if other school districts had similar rules, Butler mentioned that the Dallas ISD has one in place.
KRLD reached out to the Dallas ISD to verify that claim, and not only is it true, but Dallas ISD's rule goes a lot farther.
The Dallas ISD tells KRLD that faculty and other employees are prohibited from recording meetings altogether unless given permission in writing from each person in attendance.
Also, the district keeps copies of all such recordings.
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