District 6 school-bus camera footage not released

Every day, about 6,000 children take a bus to and from school in Greeley. On most of those buses are video cameras capturing their actions. The tape gives the district a tool to determine what to do if inappropriate behavior occurs.

Parents, however, aren't allowed to review the tape, and that leaves Mike Moskalski outraged. After his son was involved in a physical altercation on a bus in April and received a 10-day suspension from the bus, he wanted to review the tape.

Moskalski said his son was defending himself and did not start the fight. The other student received the same punishment. He wanted to see the tape to make sure. But Greeley/Evans School District 6 officials told him no.

"This is not really fair," he said.

Citing a federal student privacy law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, officials from Greeley-Evans School District 6 say they cannot release the footage from buses to the public.

District officials would not comment about any specific case.

<strong>ON THE RECORD</strong>

From the district's Parent Guide To School Transportation on recordings:

District Six school buses may be equipped with videotaping equipment. It is generally referred to as "VAMS" (Video/Audio Monitoring System) and is designed to provide a videotaped record of behaviors inside a school bus. Misbehavior discovered by viewing videotapes may result in disciplinary action.

District 6 began retrofitting buses with video cameras about seven years ago. About 80 percent of the district's buses are fitted with cameras, with a cost of about $1,200 for each vehicle.

"Bus safety is very important," said Wayne Eads, chief operations officer for District 6. "Cameras are a way to protect students, to monitor what happens."

He said to allow a parent to view any footage, the district would have to either get releases from the parents of the other children on the tape or digitally blur out their faces, both of which are not financially realistic.

"This is about protecting the child," Eads said.

The district only reviews footage if a driver, principal or student reports inappropriate conduct on the bus. If not, the video is recycled after about a week.

Eads said he has talked about the issue of not releasing the videotapes with a small number of parents.

"We've done the best to meet their concerns," he said. "I think we are fair. We do listen."

Of the 152 bus routes a day, reported incidents of inappropriate conduct occurs less than one percent of the time, Eads said.

Roger Fiedler, spokesman for the school district, said only in criminal cases would the tapes be handed over to outside hands -- the police.

Christopher Collins, an attorney at Collins, Liu and Lyons, said there are good arguments on both sides.

Collins said the bus videotapes could be argued as being defined as public records under the state's sunshine laws. But they also could be looked at as educational records, which would be protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Though students may have a right to privacy, Collins said, the buses are public vehicles.

"They have an argument that these are public records," said Collins. "The school district is being very cautious in releasing these tapes to be sure there is no liability. (But) there is also argument that these are not educational records."

According to the state's Open Records Act, it's public policy that all public records be available by any person for inspection, with some exceptions.

Collins suggested parents who really want to view the videotapes should contact a lawyer and allow a judge to decide how the tapes should be classified.

Despite legal arguments, Collins can't see why the school wouldn't let a concerned parent view bus tapes, even on district property.

"I can't believe they are denying it," Collins said.

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District 6 school-bus camera footage not released

Christopher Ortiz