S.20.2-17: Keeping Our Schools Safe from the Surveillance State Act (Passed)

[Dr. MB]

As someone who has been in a situation where I was assaulted by bullies on school grounds, and successfully took them to court with the help of surveillance footage on the school's camera system, I fail to see how this bill is even remotely necessary other than the Governor memeing about "muhhh all surveillance is bad and violates privacy".

Surveillance cameras can also be helpful in school districts facing problems with violence and gang activity in schools.

There is no real need for this bill to exist.

Cameras can help in that situation, I'll admit that. But so can planting mics on every student or ankle-braceleting them to see what location they were in or bugging every hallway. It's a slippery slope.

Every student should have the right to a good education and a good education means one where they're not being constantly recorded by the school administration, with metal detectors at the gate and cameras in every hallway making it like the inside of a prison. "Crime prevention" is just an excuse to introduce a new step in the rapidly expanding surveillance state.

[Dr. MB]

Students who go to schools with cameras increasingly put a lack of trust in their schools and cameras also create the feeling of an invasion of privacy - both for students and for teachers.

Students who go to schools with heavy surveillance actually have a moderate decrease in their academic performance. Maybe just maybe because it creates the feeling of a prison? Where your every move is being watched?

The difference between cameras in school and a place like say, Target is that 1) school is a required place to go, nobody is forcing anybody to go to Target. For a legal requirement it should at least come with a modest expectation of privacy. The excessive punishment systems that many schools use are in fact a violation of constitutional rights in many cases. 2) a store or restaurant has one main goal: to make money. Of course they'd use many different methods to make sure they don't lose money including setting up cameras to deter shoplifters. The goal of a school should be to provide an education. Nobody needs a camera to get a good education.