Lobby group calls for kids to secretly video teachers, ‘to expose inappropriate behaviour or material’ at school

Anti-vaxxer Monica Smit has launched a group that urges parents to get school kids to video their teachers, watch for transitioning students and toilet use, and report if the national anthem is sung.

A group formed by Monica Smit urges parents to get their children to video teachers at school. Picture: Wayne Taylor

A new lobby group that is urging parents to get their children to video record their teachers, monitor schools for transitioning pupils and assess the curriculum for material on sexuality has outraged educators.

Parents Taking Charge — formed by high profile, anti-Covid lockdown and anti-vaccination campaigner Monica Smit — also wants parents to urgently make appointments with their school principals to quiz them on whether they sing the national anthem, call Australia Day “Invasion Day” and monitor what toilets children use.

Parents are advised to quiz their children on such issues and “give them permission to video record anything that we can use to expose inappropriate behaviour or material,” the group’s website advises.

Monica Smit leaving the Melbourne Magistrate Court after she was charged by Consumer Affairs Victoria with breaching the fundraising act. Picture: David Crosling

Monica Smit is now urging parents to get their kids to spy on teachers.

The group, which encourages anonymous submissions, has been condemned by teachers who believe it’s a gross violation of their privacy and professional ethics.

More than 100 parents have already signed up to the group, which Ms Smit launched earlier this month.

Ms Smit, who founded the group Regnite Democracy Australia in 2020, was recently convicted in the Magistrate’s Court for running an unregistered fundraiser to pay her legal bills after incurring $200,000 in legal costs.

According to Consumer Affairs Victoria, she received more than $66,000 in donations.

The costs relate to a court case where she was found to be unlawfully arrested during anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne in October 2020. Ms Smit was awarded $4000 in damages but incurred hefty costs as she had turned down a pre-trial settlement of $15,000.

She told the Herald Sun she was concerned about children being indoctrinated in schools.

“I’ve heard lots of parents express that they don’t feel in control of their children’s education, especially when it comes to sexual education. Some schools are providing medical and sexual advice to children without the consent or knowledge of the parents. I find this abhorrent in every way,” she said.

“Schools seem to be becoming more politically biased when it comes to things like Australia Day, for example. Schools should educate children, not indoctrinate them.”

When asked if she was concerned about the privacy issues being raised by teachers, Ms Smit said she was not.

Monica Smit at a rally in 2021. Picture: David Geraghty

Monica Smit before she was arrested, in a video uploaded in December 2020.

“It’s 2024, cameras are everywhere; from the grocery store to the street lamps. If a teacher isn’t doing anything inappropriate, there’s no need to be concerned,” she said.

Teachers exchanged negative views about the group online, with one commenting: “I can barely get my students to listen for a full lesson let alone indoctrinate them”.

Another noted that if a “kid whips out a video camera you bet I’m calling exec and not doing anything until it’s gone”.

Yet another said: “I’m pretty sure it would be illegal for a school to share private student information like that.”

A Victorian government spokeswoman said “every student has a right to learn in a safe and supportive environment”.

“Mobile phones are banned in schools because we want all our classrooms and school environments to be conducive to learning. Students should not be using them to secretly film students or teachers,” she said.

“Schools welcome constructive and respectful dialogue with parents and carers — students should focus on their learning while at school, not the games of their parents.”

Students should not be using phones at school, and certainly not to “secretly film students or teachers”, says the state government. Picture: Supplied

The Australian Education Union and the Independent Education Union declined to comment. But Edward Schuller from the Teachers Professional Association of Victoria said the group was a “natural consequence of the unease over the way the education system is operating in Victoria, where there is not enough transparency over how schools are run”.

In 2002 Smit, who was accused of inciting others to protest amid Covid restrictions but had her charges dropped, declared she was “a living woman” – a reference to the sovereign citizen movement that took hold during the pandemic.

In a video, the one-time reality TV hopeful said she was testing the theory through the courts to see if it worked.

“I’m trialling the whole ‘I am a living woman’ thing,” she said.

“I hear people talking about it all the time so I was like ‘how better to see if it works unless I just do it myself’.”