statism watch

Schools are becoming little prisons. Are these the sort of social conditions we want to train and condition the next generation to accept? Hey, teachers! Leave those kids alone!

Flashback: Lunchtime lockdown to promote healthier eating: T.O. school plan | Schools seek more police as crime drops | Police presence in high schools makes the grade | Has your child been CAFed? How the Government plans to record intimate information on every child in Britain | Parents, children to be fingerprinted at initial 250+ nursery schools in UK | Frequent school lockdowns raise questions | CCTV cameras spying on hundreds of classrooms | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | School removes CCTV cameras from children’s toilets after furious protest from parents

Leia Clancy, Sam Goodman, The Guardian
June 3, 2009

Our school’s installation of TV cameras to watch our lessons is an insult – a fact many adults failed to grasp when we protested

Earlier this year, on a school day like any other, we shuffled into our politics class at 11.20 on a Monday morning. What we didn’t notice straight away were four tinted CCTV domes hanging from the ceiling including a huge monitor dome staring right at us. Confusion and anger broke out among us. A teacher casually stated that they were for teacher training purposes. After a thought of “God, George Orwell was right”, some of us angrily packed up and left – we weren’t comfortable working in a classroom with cameras.

It turned out that our entire class was angry or confused over the cameras. Out of a class of 18 students, 17 felt uncomfortable with the idea and decided to boycott the room until the issue, and the students, were addressed. This was a difficult decision as we were three months away from exams and we had five lessons a fortnight in the room. The student body was supportive and a petition gained over 130 signatures from the sixth-form.

Two weeks later our teacher read a statement from our headteacher explaining the cameras were to be used for teacher training purposes alone, that the system was not currently switched on, and that we would be warned whenever it was meant to go live. It did, however, also say that it was initially not deemed “necessary” to consult the pupils about the installation.

Lessons continued, although a few weeks later when students discovered that the recording system was in a cupboard in our classroom the microphones were found to in fact be switched on. We switched them off.

The school is currently awaiting a decision from the information commissioner as to whether the cameras can remain or not. Henry’s Porter’s blog about our decision to “revolt against classroom CCTV” sparked a huge debate on the issue of CCTV in schools. Although users were largely supportive, we wanted to respond to some of the misinformation posted by commentators.

Many users suggested that cameras were a good idea because they could be used to keep an eye on bullying and student behaviour, we were accused of been “narcissistic megalomaniacs” angry at “being nabbed for our churlish troublemaking”. This stereotypical and frankly ignorant view ignores the fact that Davenant Foundation School produces some of the best exam results in Essex. Violent behaviour among pupils is simply not an issue, making the justification for putting cameras in our classrooms more surprising.

Adults are often quick to define the youth of today as stereotypical troublemakers and violent offenders – generalisations which are prompted by the media – when in fact the majority of students at our school are as responsible and arguably better behaved then the majority of adults. Some commentators insinuated that we overheard adults talking about rights and repeated it. That notion isn’t worth the space it was typed upon. We are A-level politics students who have been studying civil liberties as part of the curriculum for the last two years. Sam campaigned for David Davis when he resigned over the issue of civil liberties and spoke at speakers’ corner about the issue. The criticism of our campaign only serves to illustrate the ignorance of adults who have surrendered within only the last few years our right to protest in parliament, our right to go about our business without being stopped and questioned by police about our identity and our affairs, and our personal privacy. [Ed. Note: +1]

Eroding standards in schools and deteriorating discipline are down to a broken society and the failure of the education system. The truth is that we are whatever the generation before us has created. If you criticise us, we are your failures; and if you applaud us we are your successes, and we reflect the imperfections of society and of human life. If you want to reform the education system, if you want to raise education standards, then watching children every hour of every day isn’t the answer. The answer is to encourage students to learn by creating an environment in which they can express their ideas freely and without intimidation.

Source | See Also under Cameras:: UK installing license plate scanning network | Toronto police board challenges chief on CCTV deterrence, demands ‘phase-in’ | UK: Retaining images from surveillance of protesters ruled illegal | Police laud Toronto surveillance cameras, critics not so sure | Criminologists: CCTV schemes in city and town centres have little effect on crime | Winnipeg police confiscate documentary filmmaker’s camera | Guardian reporter detained for taking picture of sea near Bilderberg conference | Australian nightclub installs face-scanning security system | Police seizures of cameras prompts B.C. complaint | NYPD seeks to expand anti-terror program to midtown | Police erased cellphone video of fatal shooting, witness alleges | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | UK: Calling the police to account for anti-photography law | UK: Landlord fights police plan for CCTV at pub | Plan to add Toronto red-light cameras on hold | Security cameras proposed for downtown Sydney | UK House of Lords warns over ’surveillance state’ | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Let’s face it, soon Big Brother will have no trouble recognising you | Military challenge: Make spy data more accessible | UK: Big Brother CCTV to spy on pupils aged four – complete with CPS evidence kit | Toronto surveillance project to enter new phase pending review | Australian Citizen Journalist Charged for Filming Police under Anti-Terror Law | Social services set up CCTV camera in couple’s bedroom | New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US | Red light cameras not going up fast enough for Toronto budget | NYC Residents Furious over Invasive Surveillance Grid | Security officials to scan D.C. area license plates | CCTV cameras spying on hundreds of classrooms | CCTV doesn’t keep us safe | Hats banned from Yorkshire pubs over CCTV fears | Billboards that look back | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | $4 Million Earmarked for Cameras, “Respect” at Toronto Schools | Vancouver Olympics security cameras raise privacy concerns | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | Surveillance cameras to keep an eye on downtown Calgary | Privacy International responds to Ontario Privacy Commissioner ruling on CCTV | School removes CCTV cameras from children’s toilets after furious protest from parents | West Virginia: Bill Turns Traffic Cameras into Spy Cameras | When Surveillance Cameras Talk | Charges laid after Winnipeg street blocked off for hours | Ottawa police chief calls for more surveillance cameras | T.T.C. Starts Camera Installation On Buses & Streetcars | Toronto police seek feedback on installing security cameras | Premier Thinks Yonge St. Cameras Should Stay, John Tory Wants Them In Ent. District | Cameras To Be Installed Downtown For Holiday Shopping Season | Ontario cities can install red-light cameras

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 10:27 am and is filed under culture, privacy, surveillance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.