Surveillance Cameras In Classrooms: Trust V/S Security
By Ms.Swaleha Sindhi
16 March, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Introduction
The nature of school security has changed dramatically over the last decade. Schools employ various measures, from employing school guards to identification badges to metal detectors to promote the safety and security of staff and students. One of the increasingly prevalent measures is the use of security cameras. While security cameras can be useful in addressing and deterring violence and other misconduct, they also raise several legal issues that can leave school administrators in a difficulty. Does the use of surveillance cameras to capture images violate a student or staff member’s right of privacy? If the images captured on a surveillance recording are of a student violating school rules, may district education officers and other state machinery use the recording in a disciplinary proceeding? If so what about parents of other students whose images are captured on the recording? How should schools handle inquiries from media about surveillance footage? Can administrators use surveillance cameras to monitor staff? These are some practical questions of considerations for the school administrators.
Many school administrators believe that the use of surveillance cameras deters student misconduct and improves security and the overall school climate. Some students and families, on the other hand, believe that the use of cameras intrudes upon one’s expectation of privacy and that recordings are unreasonable seizures of one’s images. However as per the Law when cameras are placed in public locations in which individuals do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, there is no violation of law. But when a camera is placed in an area in which a student may have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a restroom or washrooms, it is an invasion of privacy. School administrators should be particularly cautious about using surveillance cameras that collect audio recordings in addition to video recordings. The recording of audio conversations is likely to violate laws.
When asked about the surveillance in classrooms some of the teachers felt that keeping cameras out of the classroom is the best policy as there is a fear of invasion on the teacher-pupil relationship. That is, there is great concern about the possible effect cameras may have on students and how that may in turn impact their interaction with their teachers. These teachers site the erosion of student/teacher rapport and claim that cameras may, eventually, affect their teaching styles.
Keeping security cameras out of classrooms is a hot issue and a topic of debate in Gujarat at the moment. The idea of CCTV Surveillance during Gujarat Board Exams this year which begun from 12 March 2015 does not seem to have gone down well with some parents and students. The parents and students opposed it totally and broke the cameras at different exam centres. Parents feel that authorities authenticate that they do not trust our children the future of this nation, one parent went to the extent of saying that “Are our children criminals? Are the schools jails and administrators jailors? What are the mentality and how much it has changed from our times? The school administrators are not at all sensitive to the Childs psychology”. It is very important that schools recognise students’ social and emotional needs so that they can teach them the requisite skills to become model citizens. Every school strives to improve their student’s self-awareness and confidence, and manage their disturbing emotions and impulses this will affirm students’ dignity. But instead schools have resorted to surveillance for managing school issues. Thus instead of focussing on building trust between school and students they have resorted to surveillance, without thinking about the negative impact it will have on students’ educational experience.
Impact of surveillance
Studies suggest that school security measures have the potential to harm school learning environments. The adoption of rigid and intrusive security measures in schools diminishes the rights of students and increases the likelihood that trivial forms of student misconduct that used to be handled informally by schools will result in police complaints. Along with the increasing use of security measures, schools are employing strict discipline policies to keep students in line and maintain safety, which undoubtedly negatively influences the social climate of schools. Surveillance cameras provide students with a reasonable expectation of safety and if they are attacked in full view of a camera and no one comes to their aid, schools could be successfully sued. Analysis of the use of surveillance cameras in schools suggests that they may work to corrode the educational environment by implicitly labelling students as untrustworthy (cameras magnify this impact since their sole purpose is to record misbehaviours and deter through intimidation). There is no clear evidence that the use of metal detectors, security cameras, or guards in schools is effective in preventing school indiscipline. Studies have shown that the presence of security guards and metal detectors in schools negatively impacts students’ perceptions of safety and even increases fear among some students.
Conclusion
The school administrators should develop policies that set out the purpose for using surveillance cameras and outline the parameters for use. They must place cameras only in common areas, like stairwells, and avoid placing cameras in areas where students and staff would have an expectation of privacy. They must notify the school community through the student handbooks that surveillance cameras are located throughout school buildings and that anyone on school destroying the school property may be videotaped. The basic goal of any school is to develop trust and foster emotional intelligence as essential to building strong school-student relationship, building strong relationships with students will have a positive influence on student success. Each student brings knowledge to the school and the schools must validate their ideas, this will encourage students of different levels of ability to keep sharing their knowledge. Students must be provided a safe space in which they can grow, thrive, question, analyse, think critically, and take risks. Schools can have their own ways of monitoring discipline by making the discipline incharges or the school Principals do patrolling in the corridor while the classes are going on. Camera is just another thing for students (especially adolescents) to play with.
(Ms.Swaleha Sindhi is Assistant Professor in Department of Educational Administration, The M.S.University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat,Email:[email protected])
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