Surveillance in Schools

Implementing Surveillance

School surveillance methods include locker searches; metal detectors; security cameras; police patrols; and, more recently, biométrie scanning and Internet tracking. Locker searches basically involve school officials (principals, teachers, disciplinarians, security personnel), randomly and without student permission, opening a student's locker and investigating its contents. Metal detectors, in the form of handheld wands or walk-thru units, are used to find metal objects carried by students, particularly guns or knives. Security cameras and closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) are used to monitor the activities of school participants in places like hallways, parking lots, and stairwells. Police patrols, performed by security personnel, occur within the school environment, as well as in the surrounding community. Officers may be dressed in either plain clothes or uniform. The fairly new technology of biometrics involves fingerprinting and face recognition, with the former being used more prevalently. Internet tracking has become more common in schools and workplaces. School officials and company employers are using the latest software products (eBlaster and Spector Pro) to assist them in overseeing e-mail usage and Web site searches, as well as [Page 775]preventing sexual harassment and cyberbullying among students and adults.

School surveillance became a central focus in American society in the 1990s after shocking episodes of school violence were witnessed in places like Jonesboro, Arkansas; Jefferson County, Colorado; Paducah, Kentucky; and Pearl, Mississippi. In the wake of these highly publicized tragedies, the need for safer schools became a concern not only for educators and families, but also for politicians. Federal programs and legislation, such as the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, geared at minimizing school violence, broadly translated into zero-tolerance policies that found schools across the nation adopting surveillance tactics as the primary means for ensuring school safety. Although surveillance has been criticized as an invasion of privacy and an infringement upon students' Fourth Amendment rights, some regard it as indispensable in maintaining a sense of safety for all school participants.

Roots of institutional surveillance can be traced as far back as the late eighteenth century. Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher, conceived a model for a type of prison called the Panopticon. The building's tall, circular structure situated prisoners in cells or compartments along its inner circumference, and the building's inspector, or chief guard, was lodged in the center, having a view of all prisoners at all times. As Bentham was faced with numerous political and financial obstacles at the time, the Panopticon essentially remained a blueprint. However, its architectural influence can be seen in the basic organization of today's prisons. The Panopticon's hierarchical design has also served as a metaphor for ideas related to “discipline” and “social structure” within institutions like hospitals, military facilities, and schools. French philosopher Michel Foucault looks at this phenomenon extensively in his 1975 publication Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison.

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