Walled Lake student to fight possible expulsion after bathroom incident
Teen recorded teacher using restroom, posted it to social media
A Walled Lake Central High School student plans to fight alleged attempts to expel him after he recorded a video of his teacher using the restroom during virtual class and posted it on social media.
“A local school district is unfairly targeting and scapegoating a young teenage student who, like so many others in the pandemic era, memorialized a blooper-type Zoom moment when his teacher took her laptop into the
restroom and videoed herself going to the bathroom in front of her entire class,” said a statement from Rockind Law, a Bloomfield Hills firm that is representing the unnamed student.
The teacher apparently thought the camera was off while she used the restroom during class on Wednesday, March 10, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident at the school in Commerce Township, but no charges have been filed, the report said.
The law firm’s statement said police issued a search warrant for the student’s cell phone.
The Walled Lake Consolidated School District cannot comment on student discipline matters, said Judy Evola, district spokeswoman. She also declined comment on whether any action would be taken against the teacher and declined to confirm whether the law firm’s account of the incident is accurate.
“Rather than punish the teacher for taking her laptop into the restroom or going to the bathroom in front of the entire class of 26 kids, the school district is instead targeting the student – calling for his expulsion. This is totally backwards,” said the law firm’s statement.
“As if students trying to learn remotely didn’t have enough stress, this student is being castigated for taking a video of his teacher doing something incredibly shocking in front of her whole class; and in a moment of ‘Can you believe this?’ he shared it with his friends and is now being wrongly scapegoated in order to protect the adult teacher,” said Colin Daniels, senior associate at Rockind Law, in the statement.
The student’s academic future could be destroyed “for simply making and sharing a video of the teacher’s conduct,” the statement said.
“Since the pandemic began and video conferencing has become widely used around the world, incidents of participants caught in embarrassing moments have been the subject of news stories, tweets, Youtube videos and social media posts.
“Each of these ended up being shared, reshared and reposted hundreds of thousands or millions of times – mostly out of humor. Of course those doing so weren’t committing crimes – they were sharing an odd, relatable moment during a challenging time in history,” said the law firm’s statement.