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View Full Version : UK Schools to have CCTV in classrooms.


aura
12-11-2009, 06:54 PM
I've never seen this posted here before. This video was recently featured on Fox News.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Here is a related article about the new changes in the school system.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/education/Pix/pictures/2009/7/31/1249059310854/Proponents-of-surveillanc-001.jpg

Proponents of surveillance cameras in schools claim they protect pupils, help teachers and even improve exam results.

Schools are increasingly installing CCTV cameras in classrooms:

Hundreds of primary and secondary schools across the country intend to install CCTV cameras in classrooms over the next five years to root out bad teachers and check up on naughty pupils,
Education Guardian has learned.

In March this year, Sam Goodman, 18, walked out of his politics lesson to protest against four CCTV cameras that had been installed overnight in the classroom. He was joined by all but one of his classmates. Goodman says his school, an Essex comprehensive, told the class that the cameras had not been switched on yet, and that when they were, they'd be used for teacher training purposes only.

A few weeks later, Goodman says students discovered that the recording system was in a cupboard in the classroom and that the microphones were in fact on. Goodman and his friends promptly switched them off.

The revelation comes after a comprehensive in a deprived south London neighbourhood, Stockwell Park high school, said late last month that it had installed 100 cameras – two in each of its classrooms and 40 in its canteen, corridors and playgrounds. Classwatch's managing director, Angus Drever, says 94 schools in the UK already use its high-definition cameras in their classrooms at a cost of £1,345 a year for the lease of two cameras in a classroom, including maintenance.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the Nasuwt teaching union, says: "We do not support the use of cameras in this way and see no professional, security or educational benefits to such systems. More and more schools are wasting thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on CCTV cameras."

Full Story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/aug/04/schools-cctv-surveillance

School CCTV tape seized after kids filmed changing:

Full Story:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1181082_school_cctv_seized_after_kids_filmed_chang ing

neutrino
12-11-2009, 07:14 PM
I don't have a problem with CCTV cameras in classrooms.

nicolaj
12-11-2009, 07:19 PM
My sons schools had them for 3 1/2 years

pureheart
12-11-2009, 07:28 PM
They already have CCTV in corridors and communal areas. They are quite useful to combat bullying and vandalism. If someone is assaulted then the cameras help to get the guilty pupil excluded.

Although I don't particularly like the idea of surveillance, having seen the behaviour of some high school students I think I would prefer my daughter to be in a class with a camera in it than with a bunch of hooligans doing exactly as they please because they have an inexperienced teacher who can't cope on their own and has no access to back-up either.

I think all classrooms should at least have a telephone, especially the more remote 'mobile' classrooms.

neutrino
12-11-2009, 07:52 PM
I will always remember the School CCTV camera in the states which captured a police officer beat the living shit out of a student for no apparent reason other than he was in a bad mood.

I think I would prefer my daughter to be in a class with a camera in it than with a bunch of hooligans doing exactly as they please because they have an inexperienced teacher who can't cope on their own and has no access to back-up either.



It's unreal what kids get up to when the teacher leaves the room, with CCTV it would deter them getting up to anything.

baxter
12-11-2009, 08:00 PM
Not surprised as the UK's people are the most watched in the world. Just remember to pack your Anonymous mask ;)