School curbs recording of classes Friday, February 02, 2007 • BY KEN THORBOURNE • JERSEY JOURNAL After one of their teachers was caught on tape proselytizing about religion, Kearny school officials have decided to clamp down on recordings in the classroom. The board of education on Jan. 16 adopted a policy requiring students get permission from instructors to record in the classroom. Students in the class also must be notified they are being taped. Students with learning disabilities automatically will be permitted to record classes, officials said. The policy comes in response, officials said, to two students and a parent who complained 16-year-old Kearny High School student Matthew LaClair invaded their privacy last September when he surreptitiously recorded his history teacher telling students anyone who didn't believe in God "belonged in hell." The recording, circulated on the Internet and various media outlets, captured LaClair's history teacher, David Paszkiewicz, who also said dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark and panned the theory of evolution and the "Big Bang." LaClair, who is still in Paszkiewicz's class, said the teacher recently cited global warming as an example of Adolf Hitler's "big lie" theory -- people will believe a big lie more readily than a small one, especially if it is repeated often enough. The student, who said administrators didn't believe him when he complained about Paszkiewicz until he produced the tapes, called the new rule "a step backward." "They are taking away the only proof a student might have to prove what was said in class," he said. But Kenneth Lindenfelser, the school board's attorney, said LaClair's assertions would have been taken seriously even without the tapes -- despite the fact that Paul LaClair, Matthew LaClair's father, said he wrote four letters to the board and never got a reaction until his son confronted the administration with the recordings. The LaClairs now have an attorney who's been negotiating with the district to institute training for teachers on the separation of church and state, and hold assemblies to refute Paszkiewicz's statements, Paul LaClair said. At its upcoming meeting on Feb. 20, the board plans to pass a resolution stating the district's policy is not to mix church and state, and teacher seminars on the subject are in the works, Lindenfelser said. School officials said "corrective action" was taken against Paszkiewicz after LaClair came forward with his allegations, but they have refused to say what was done because of privacy laws. © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.