School CCTV

We have had CCTV in some computer rooms and communal areas for several years. Everyone gets used to it very quickly. It proved most useful when non-students came on site to steal stuff. The police got some high quality images from the system and recognised the offenders straight away. I expect it moves bullying to areas not on-camera. That is why out-of-sight bike sheds have been tradidtional bullying areas. In a previous college, the students stopped setting fire to the toilet rolls when a fake camera was installed. The students already video each other and their teachers with mobile phones. It's not that big a deal.

Well of course they don't need them for the teachers

They're not bullying each other and vandalising the school. Of course it's "one rule for them and another for the kids", because the kids are behaving differently. If they want to be treated like adults, act like them too.

Carrots are off the menu

Same old - same old. All stick and no carrot. If people are being twats then it can only be remedied with CCTV.

I can see the 'Opportunities Advisor' sessions from here -- "Well, we've got several placements for CCTV system monitors at schools and shopping centers. Doesn't appear to be much else available these days".

Phones

If it is deemed necessary to install cameras in the schools, then it should also be deemed fair to allow the kiddliwinks to have their phones/cameras back while on school grounds.

Since the kiddies can protect themselves from bullying and bad teaching BY the teachers, as well as each other.

In the same way that bullies won't like being filmed, maybe the teachers won't like being filmed all day from 20 different angles.

And obviously allow the kiddies to film in the teachers toilets too... only fair....

See how long they put up with that one.

Of course all this does is *move* the bullying from around cameras to quiet spots of the school, or even off the grounds.

But that is of course what the headteachers want isn't it? No bullying on their grounds. It doesn't matter if it happens somewhere else... but not on their turf?

If I was a Teacher

I'd probably want a camera hovering over me at all times, so it can prove that I have never broken any law...

However that notion in and of itself is increadibly depressing.

Pupils are not adults

”It is OK to ‘monitor’ pupils – but not to ‘spy on’ the grown ups.”

Well, not to say that CCTV is all hunky-dory, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it's OK to do a lot to pupils that's not OK for grown-ups. The pupils are obliged to be there by legal requirement. The grown-ups aren't.

Half the problems in schools are to do with the ridiculous idea that pupils should be treated as adults, with the rights of adults. They're not adults, they are children. They don't have the rights of adults because they don't have the responsibilities of adults and no-one expects that they should behave like adults. Because they are children.

Pretending otherwise doesn't help their education and development, and certainly doesn't help their teachers.

I used to work at an FE college in the MIS dept

and my experience with the teachers is that they are somewhat confused in what they want.

example : our funding was completely dependant on the data we sent to the funding agency. Basic stuff like how many people on a given course, pass rates at exam time, and critically attendance.

Unfortunately trying to make teachers record attendance is such a hot potato that they once tried to threaten me with union action when I told one that it was her legal responsibility to record attendance in her class. Not just for the data upon which our funding is dependant but also for Health and Safety regs. Should the building catch fire how will we know who is still in the classroom or not?

Sadly they were terrified because many of them had almost nil attendance at their classes due to (amongst other regions) the shabby teaching methods, pointless courses and zero discipline. Therefore if this became apparent the course would be rightly closed down and the funds directed to a more appropriate outcome.

So the logic was:

I don't do my job properly (engage students with interesting content) so it is not in my interest to do my job properly (take a register) in case people find out that I don't do my job properly (engage students with interesting content) therefore I will continue to not do my job properly (not take a register) and if I'm challenged to do my job properly I'll get the union in to protect my right to not do my job properly.

Somebody else's problem

"A quick Google throws up plenty of good news stories, in which the introduction of cameras appears to lead to less vandalism and graffiti, and a corresponding fall in bullying. The latter is claimed especially for the cameras in washrooms."

This reminds me of the Old Firm games in Glasgow, when the clubs claim that there's no violence around the grounds when they play each other. But wander into the city centre later on and it's a different story.

This just treats the symptoms, not the cause. Out of sight, out of mind as they say. Most school bullying takes the form of verbal and mental abuse anyway, which these cameras will do nothing to control.

Another question

Shouldn't we be asking why there's such an increase in kids misbehaving? Assuming of course that there actually is and it's not another media hype or government statistic.

I take a pain killer if I hurt but I also keep an eye on what's causing the pain.

Just a thought......

Cameras in loos?

Depends what they're being used for. You don't need cameras to catch pupils smoking - just very sensitive smoke alarms wired into the mains (don't want the little blighters removing the battery!)

At a squeeze, one facing down the line of basins, but surely a sensitive mic would be just as effective?

I expect most incidents captured on CCTV during school hours could be sorted out without involving the parents watching the footage - the school would just deploy a member of staff to the affected area, and if necessary dish out a lunchtime detention.

Lunchtime detentions are used quite frequently because as they take place during school time, you don't need to give the parents 24 hrs written notice (which means in reality the pupil gets the detention at least 2 days after the event)

Criminal Teachers

If the teachers aren't up to no good in their toilets (criminal activity etc.) , then they should allow full CCTV installations in them.

After all "if you have nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear".

Isn't that how the inane saying goes with relation to surveillance?

overkill?

> the students stopped setting fire to the toilet rolls when a fake camera was installed.

What's wrong with a smoke detector and powerful sprinker in each cubicle, and detention (or a good thrashing) for everyone who comes out soaking wet after the alarm goes off? Has the added benefit of better fire safety too...

Human Contact

"Teachers increasingly tend to intervene in critical situations in a policing or disciplinary role. The human to human contact is lost.”

Such as fist-on-face human contact? I remember the good old day where the stronger pupils could make the weaker ones lives a living hell. Where will the next generation of middle-management come from if this natural human interaction is stopped?

@ Steve RE: Overkill

You want to install a mains fed sprinkler system and a mains fed smoke alarm per cubicle, and you call a fake cctv camera overkill?!?

@AC

"You seem to be under the misaprehension that all pupils at school are vandals and the assumption that they cannot act like adults at any time.

Even if this was true there is no justification for secretly filming any child in a toilet."

Strangely enough, the well behaved kids, you know the ones who get beaten up in the toilets everyday, probably won't object.

This is not particularly new, it very much depends on the state of the school, but my high school, i left in 1996, had a couple of hidden cameras in the smoking spots while i was there, and was absolutely covered in cameras when i went back to get my exam results. I don't think it was anything to do with showing the parents what their kids were up to, they wouldn't care, or catching them in the act, as most were well known and constantly punished. I think it was about gathering enough hard evidence to present to the education authority to have certain kids removed and stop them being disruptive to the rest.

The problem seems to be that "all children are entitled to an education" seems to have been taken to extremes. If they don't want it, and their parents don't care, why force them to be in a school? There just needs to be some alternative put in place to stop gangs of the feral little sh*ts plaguing the rest of us. Victorian workhouses anyone?

@Gav and Adult Responsibility

I quote "They don't have the rights of adults because they don't have the responsibilities of adults"

What if I'm an extremely rich adult with no responsibilities - does that free me from the constraints of the society in which you apparently live?

Let's say my money pays for someone to handle all my "responsibilities" to the point where I don't even have them anymore - does that mean you have the right to spy on me?

@ Just a thought

Seeing how adults can be charged for sleeping with children who lie about their age and carry false ID, it would certainly be an interesting case to try.

I think if someone put cameras in the school toilets back home, someone (cough, not me guv) would have had them away. After all, it only needs something to cover your face, everyone wears the same uniform...

@ Just a thought

Well, I know that if I found out that my kids were being spied upon in the toilet, I would make it my mission to have everyone involved, from the CCTV installer to the individual members of the school board, to be charged with production of child pornography.

Of course, I'd also be trying to sue the school very literally out of existence. I wouldn't make a secret out of my goal, either. I may not like the idea of CCTV throughout the school in general, but I absolutely draw the line at in the toilets.

-Daniel

@Daniel

Ditto.

@Anonymous Coward and @Scott Thomson

"If I was a teacher"

I believe you meant to say "If I were a teacher". Or didn't you pay attention in class?

should not be allowed

I would probably rather be filmed sitting on a toilet than checking my teeth or looking for sweat marks under my arms in the mirror.

People still need privacy in a bathroom even if they are not sitting on a toilet.

It's ridiculous.

Filming people all the time means that they are not free to relax and be themselves. People are going to have to watch their behaviour and act like robots, even in places where you would expect some degree of privacy. (what they want)

Maybe someone wants to have a fly pick of their nose at the back of the classroom, or pull their underwear out of their ass cheeks? Now there is no place to do that, as having it caught on film, stored god knows where and watched by god knows who is (again) probably worse than someone catching you in real-time then forgetting about it.

Oh my God I can't believe they're actually doing this..

It doesn't matter if you have nothing to hide. (lets face it, most people do, it's just that it's not illegal stuff)

This kind of mass surveilance creates a stressful environment and a paranoid feeling at the very very least. Children more than ever need to be treated with the tiniest bit of respect, please. They are already branded knife wielding hooded thugs on the street, now you are onto them in the classroom when they are 8 years old ?

I swear to God the next thing will be cameras in people's houses.

Back in the day

Ok, it was 5 years ago. I was suspended for taking photos of teachers and posting them to the net. Now look

Babes in our charge

They're kids, not adults.

We don't care about the privacy of babies, so why do we care about the privacy of children?

Young people (aged between 15-23) are the main cause of crime, and the police are mainly baby-sitters who spend most of their time chasing after them.

Until kids develop their frontal cortex and become responsible adults (sadly, some never do) I say we watch them closely every second of the day. After all, we are responsible for them.

kids don't matter anyway - another cop-out

Have you seen the conditions in the student toilets? Have they changed at all since my day? But do the staff care? No, they use the staff toilets.

If they got rid of the staff toilets, there would be basic supervision of the students in the student toilets, misbehaviour would not be tolerated, maintenance would be adequate, and CCTV would be unnecessary.