Arkansas has made something extraordinary state law: public schools will be required to install audio recording devices inside locker rooms and changing rooms.

Yes, inside locker rooms.

House Bill 1866, known as “Eli’s Law,” became Act 908 in April 2025. Beginning with the 2027-28 school year, Arkansas public schools and open-enrollment public charter schools will be required to have audio recording devices in every locker room and changing room.

The law does prohibit video recording in those spaces. But it explicitly requires audio.

And those recordings aren’t immediately deleted.

Schools must retain them for at least 90 days. Generally, they cannot keep them longer than 12 months unless an allegation of wrongdoing has been made involving someone who had access to that locker room or changing room.

That means conversations between students in spaces traditionally treated as extremely private will be recorded and stored by their schools.

Think about that for a second.

This comes after years of Republican politicians building an entire political movement around supposed concerns about children, bathrooms, locker rooms and privacy.

We were told these spaces were so sensitive that entire campaigns had to be built around who could enter them.

Now Arkansas has decided the answer is apparently: put microphones inside.

Supporters of Eli’s Law argue the recordings could help investigate allegations of abuse, bullying or other misconduct. Protecting students from abuse is obviously an important goal.

But protecting children also means asking serious questions about their privacy.

Who can access these recordings? Under what circumstances? What conversations involving students could be captured? How securely will recordings be stored? What happens when students discuss deeply personal information inside a locker room without realizing their conversation could later be reviewed?

Those questions deserve far more attention than this law has received.

Because there is something deeply unsettling about normalizing government-mandated recording devices inside spaces where children change clothes.

Whatever your politics, that should make you stop and think.

Arkansas lawmakers may call this a student-safety measure.

But when the state starts requiring microphones inside school locker rooms, the public deserves to know about it.

And somehow, almost nobody is talking about this.

TALK ABOUT IT!

Sean

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