The videos started popping up last month on YouTube.
In one, secretly videotaped by a student, a teacher at Malibu High School loses control of the class and raises his voice while students laugh at him. In another, teenagers make fun of fellow students, who also appear to be taped without their knowledge.
The videos have roiled the high school and sparked a debate among students, parents and administrators about what to do. The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District started by restricting access to YouTube at school and talking about what types of technology -- such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants and laptops -- students can use on campus.
YouTube, MySpace and other websites are sprinkled with videos taken in high school classrooms around the country -- often, it appears, without permission of the subjects. Many are relatively tame -- others not. One popular YouTube video called "The Angry Teacher" shows a male instructor increasingly losing his cool to a classroom of unruly students. Another shows an agitated teacher pulling a chair out from underneath a student.
But policing these secret videos is proving a challenge for educators, who say they must balance protecting the rights of students to express themselves in this digital age with the need to shield classmates and teachers from ridicule.
"It's a gray area for us," said Malibu High Principal Mark Kelly. "We want to recognize our students' free speech rights, but on the other hand we have to assess the educational impact to the students and our school. Is this going to disrupt the education process of the school day?"
Officials at Tesoro High School in south Orange County are dealing with the same question after students secretly taped a teacher on campus and posted it on YouTube.
The clip, which is 2 minutes and 22 seconds long, features video of a white-haired teacher walking around the Los Flores school, edited to accompany the lyrics of the Bee-Gees' "Staying Alive." The YouTube user who posted the video wrote: He "gave me a D in biology freshman year. [He's] a sexy beast. Who's laughing now!?"
Officials at Capistrano Unified School District said they were unaware of the video until The Times contacted them, noting that access to YouTube is blocked on all district computers.
Tesoro Principal Dan Burch said he was alarmed to learn that students were videotaping teachers on campus without permission, but added it was such a new issue he would need time to figure out a response.
