Lindsay Clein and John Gerding report:
Police and school leaders in Fair Grove are investigating a possible invasion of privacy during band practice.
A few students have been accused of using an electronic device to record girls changing clothes.
Because this is a sensitive case involving minors, officials aren’t saying much. Authorities did, however, tell KOLR10 they’re currently searching through devices to find out what evidence, if any, there is related to the incident.
“Over the weekend, we received a tip from one of our students that there was a possibility of an invasion of privacy that took place during morning band practice,” says Fair Grove Superintendent Dr. John Link.
Fair Grove Police are investigating the incident with assistance from Fair Grove Schools. Officials say they believe a device was used to film girls changing after band practice.
“We have obtained a search warrant for some electronic devices,” says Fair Grove Police Chief Adam Mallory. “And we are in the process of reviewing those at the moment to find out what, if any, evidence we will have.”
Read more on OzarksFirst.com.
I suspect some will protest that the high school shouldn’t have contacted the police and should have handled this internally within the school and district, but given the risk that any pictures could be uploaded to the Internet or distributed broadly, I think the school did the right thing. I’m also glad to see that law enforcement did this right in terms of getting warrant to search the devices.
Whether the students involved should be expelled, suspended, or criminally prosecuted is a whole other discussion. This is one of those “teachable moments.” What the students and parents learn from it will depend on what happens next.