Two parents who alleged in a 2022 lawsuit that East High School officials violated their children’s civil rights by placing a hidden camera in a room where students with disabilities regularly changed their clothes are set to receive $572,500 from the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), the Wisconsin State Journal reports. The money is part of an out-of-court settlement of three separate lawsuits filed by the parents between 2021 and 2022 after police uncovered two hidden cameras the school installed.
Parents Patanne Coffey and Anna Hauser in a federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court alleged that officials’ decision to install the camera violated the students’ civil rights as well as the district’s own policy. Staff are required to receive the superintendent’s approval before setting up hidden cameras.
An East High School security staff member found the camera in January 2021 after discovering what seemed to be a hollowed-out smoke detector in room 127, which housed a cot and was used as a changing area for students with disabilities. Another camera was found in a coach’s office in a boys locker room and had been originally installed by officials in order to monitor a custodian suspected of sleeping at work, according to police.
The cameras were active for a two-week period in 2019 prior to being deactivated by school staff and removed in 2020.
In addition to the financial terms of the deal with parents, the settlement dictates that the district must expand training for those who care for students with disabilities, anti-ableism training for new staff, and clear signage for rooms where student care regularly takes place. District officials are also set to issue a public apology at an open school board meeting.
Whether or not students were ever recorded with the cameras is unclear, but police say that the footage does not appear to have been viewed by anyone. The video would have been overwritten in roughly 10 days.
