BY MIKE CETERA
The West Aurora School District seems intent on adding dozens of surveillance cameras to watch over the staff and students of West Aurora High School. Administrators say it's all in the name of safety and security. The problem, of course, is there's not much evidence to suggest cameras provide either.
"Research shows that a feeling of personal safety in school is essential for a child to learn," district spokesman Mike Chapin said.
"It is up to us to provide a sense of security to students and staff," said West High Principal Dan Bridges.
A feeling of personal safety. A sense of security. The research, or lack thereof, makes it terribly unclear if cameras provide anything more than a feeling, if schools are actually more safe and secure with cameras in place. What is clear is cameras do provide whichever company installs and maintains the cameras large sums of taxpayer money. They also explode the notion that employees and students have a right to privacy.
Now West Aurora is by no means a pioneer in using cameras to monitor activities at school. Many school districts in the Fox Valley already monitor parking lots and school hallways.
And it's easy to understand why schools find cameras appealing. They can help capture suspects in vandalism and theft cases, and they give administrators a sense of control. But do they really promote safety and security?
From Wired:
In large urban schools where violence can be routine, administrators see surveillance systems as a way to bring a semblance of control to chronically violent hallways. Where violence is not a major problem, principals and superintendents call the installations preventive, eager to show a tangible reaction to Columbine and other school shootings. Twelve students were killed by two fellow students in April, 1999 at Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado.
Columbine had security cameras. This did not stop two kids with powerful guns from destroying the myth of safety and security.
The Safe and Responsive Schools project out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a good run-down of why and how schools use security cameras. Find it here.
The report acknowledges "there is no empirical research...that has examined the effectiveness of security cameras in relation to decreased violence and crime in schools settings."
No proof that this works? Shouldn't we then be a bit more cautious about all the hundreds of thousands -- if not millions in total -- school districts are throwing at cameras?
Why "of course"? Why doesn't the paper do some research? Chicago says it works in high crime areas. Works for people who run red lights. Why won't it work at West? How many schools nationwide are using cameras? Don't talk about the money, without doing your homework, or do you not feel that you should do any homework on the subject?