A Long Beach mom is pushing for cameras to be installed in classrooms with disabled students.
Kelli, who declined to give her last name, was at the Long Beach boardwalk on Monday in hopes of getting more signatures on her petition for a pilot program to install the cameras.
She says she decided to push for the cameras after parents received an anonymous letter detailing allegations of abuse at the hands of her son's former special-education teacher at Long Beach Middle School from 2009 to 2014.
"A lot of the disabled can't speak. Some of them can but some of them can't," Kelli says. "They can't express themselves on a mentality level that they should."
Some people are raising concerns that the cameras could be an invasion of privacy. While the Long Island director of the New York Civil Liberties Union says there is no law preventing cameras in the classroom--he says it does raise some concerns.
"Much like license plate readers and red-light cameras, we want to see with any kind of program like that accompanying protocols and regulations to limit what kind of data is being captured, what it might be used for," says Jason Starr, of the NYCLU.
In a statement to News 12, the superintendent says the district is open to suggestions to enhance student safety, but it also must protect the privacy and rights of all students and their records when considering the use of cameras in the classrooms.