Georgia students, educators, school staff, and families deserve stronger safety, transparency, and accountability in public schools.

School incidents and conflicts occur every day without any objective documentation or evidence of what actually happened. This leaves students, staff, and families vulnerable, especially minors and students with disabilities or support needs, who may be less able to fully advocate for themselves or challenge inaccurate narratives in situations involving power imbalances and may be at greater risk of being harmed, discriminated against, misunderstood, or treated unfairly, particularly when self-advocacy is misinterpreted as defiance, noncompliance, or “not following directions.” Educators and school staff can also be left without clear documentation to protect themselves from false allegations, retaliation, reputational harm, humiliation, or serious professional and legal consequences when claims are inaccurate, exaggerated, or unsupported by objective evidence.

This issue is not limited to only the most extreme or high-profile incidents. It also includes the many everyday situations that can still have serious consequences for students, teachers, staff, and families, including bullying, verbal mistreatment, behavioral escalation, transportation concerns, discipline disputes, repeated patterns of inappropriate conduct, false or misleading accounts, and incidents involving unsafe or abusive behavior.

Objective documentation is critical for identifying and addressing misconduct, abuse of authority, inappropriate behavior, dishonesty, manipulation, unsafe conduct, and false or misleading narratives, whether involving students or adults. It helps protect innocent people, clarify what actually happened, reveal harmful patterns over time, and support fair, fact-based responses instead of assumptions, fear, or conflicting stories.

We are calling for Georgia lawmakers and education officials and leaders to require functioning surveillance cameras in all student-supervised areas of all Georgia public schools, including all of the following:

• Classrooms
• Hallways and interior common areas
• School buses
• Cafeterias
• Libraries
• Gymnasiums
• Playgrounds
• Student recreation areas
• Art and activity rooms
• Auditoriums and multipurpose rooms
• Behavior recovery rooms
• Opportunity rooms
• In-School Suspension rooms
• Front office waiting or student holding areas
• Outdoor school spaces where students are regularly supervised
• Other school spaces where students are regularly supervised

At a minimum, all listed areas should have functioning video surveillance, with audio recording included wherever legally permissible and operationally appropriate, particularly in environments where verbal exchanges, threats, coercion, or conflicting accounts may play a significant role in what occurred.

This is not a call for surveillance in private spaces. Any policy or law should clearly prohibit cameras in bathrooms, locker room changing areas, and nurse treatment areas where privacy is legally required, as well as in other protected private spaces.

Any policy or law should also include clear safeguards for secure video storage and controlled access to footage. Video records should be maintained for a reasonable and consistent period of time to allow for incident review, pattern identification, and due process. Access to footage should be limited to authorized personnel, with the ability for parents or guardians to request review of recordings through established school procedures and applicable laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). These measures help ensure that increased accountability is balanced with privacy, security, and responsible use.

This petition is about protecting children, supporting good teachers and school staff, strengthening accountability, and ensuring that truth is not left up to power imbalances, fear, manipulation, or conflicting narratives.

If you believe Georgia public schools should have stronger safety, accountability, and transparency protections for students and staff, please sign and share this petition.