Yet Another School Administration Beclowns Itself

Can't have a kid making a few bucks, can we?

Here's a good example of why so many of us disliked school even if we dig edumication.

Via the Twitter feed of Lizbuddie comes the story of Anthony Mazur, a 16-year-old student at Texas' Flower Mound High School. A photographer for the yearbook, Mazur took pictures of athletes and other students and then posted them on a Flickr account where he sold some of them to parents. As it happens, according to his school district's policy, there's no issue with that and Mazur apparently owns the the copyright to work he produces.

Cue administrative outrage:

Back in March, Mazur says he was called into FMHS Assistant Principal Jeffrey Brown’s office, where he saw that Brown had his website pulled up on a computer there. He said that Brown was angry at him, and told him that posting the pictures online was illegal, and violated copyright. According to Mazur, Brown also worked the angle (contrary to the policy listed above) that the camera belonged to the district. When Mazur argued that the copyright belonged to him, he says that Brown changed his tune and said that it violated student privacy. Brown allegedly told Mazur at the time that a parent had complained.

Mazur alleged that Brown told him in a coercive tone “I’m just asking you to take the website down, I’m not asking you to return any money.” Mazur said he assumed Brown meant the school, with regards to returning money. Mazur said Brown told him that he “wouldn’t report [Mazur] to the IRS” over the money he earned from selling the photos. Brown told Mazur that he was issuing an “administrative directive” to take the photos down. At this point, Mazur said he requested that his parent be brought into the discussion.

The school said that a student had complained and posting pictures violated privacy concerns. But that's not what the parents of Mazur were told:

After the meeting, the Mazurs said they received a written administrative directive ordering him to take the pictures down. Len Mazur said the reasoning listed on the directive was not related to privacy concerns, but “because he posted with the intention to profit”. The Mazur’s would not say how much money, even in general terms, that Anthony had earned from selling his photos. But Anthony said that his customers were all parents of the students in the photos, buying the digital photo for their own use. “It doesn’t matter whether he sold one or a million pictures,” said Len Mazur, who insisted that it was the principle of applying the law correctly that was important.

It turns out that the school's "acceptable use policy" (AUP) doesn't clearly apply to the situation at hand. The Lewisville Texan Journal has a wide-ranging account of the mess (which is ongoing) and has posted damning documents of the school's bullying tactics. The school district's communications person hasn't gotten back to folks with pertinent information.

Ridiculous.