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Not long ago I spoke on the phone with a friend of mine, John, who teaches high school in central California. He'd been at the school now for about eight years, but had been teaching English for close to 20. Since he came to his present position I would often hear stories of his frustration in trying to maintain a level of discipline and learning in the classroom, while often being at odds with the administration office. Actually, it was a frustration felt by many teachers in the school. It was a school run amok, or as John put it, one where the students were running the asylum. Without getting into the whole educational debate and the lack of funding for many of our schools in this country, the basic complaint that was heard here was the lack of support given to teachers from the District Office on down. Teachers were not only questioned if they handed out “D's” and “F's”, but if a student was sent to the principal's office for violation of school policy or for disrupting the class, they were sent back to class almost immediately with hardly a reprimand. Over time this only usurped the teacher's authority, and gave the upper hand to the students. Teaching at the school was hard enough. It ranked in the lower third, academically, and the socio-economic background of the student population was lower middle-class, with many parents out of work or on welfare. Theft and drugs were two other growing issues, and then there began a more serious one where many students started becoming confrontational. A student threatening a teacher wasn't unheard of, and when that threat was brought to the school principal it was usually shrugged off, or the teacher was made to feel they had aggravated the situation with the student. It wasn't surprising that teacher turnover was also becoming a growing concern. John said he, too, would have left last year, but with two more years to go before he could retire with his pension he elected to stick it out.
“A lot of the problem stems from the parents,” John said. “Very few show up on parent/teacher nights, and fewer still take a hand in instructing their kids at home or seeing that their homework is done on time. But catch a kid cheating on a test, or smoking a joint in the bathroom, or try suspending a student for stealing, fighting or verbally abusing a teacher, and the next day you have the parents in the administration office threatening the school with lawsuits. The school backs down, the district office backs down, and everything gets swept under the rug. It's too messy and costly, and administrators don't want to jeopardize their jobs, let alone the possibility of losing federal education dollars.”
This year, though, a new high school principal came onboard. He had been a Vice-Principal at a high school in west L.A. This one seemed different, and while he made it known that one of his goals was to raise academic achievement, he was also a no non-sense type of person. One of his first agendas was to meet with the entire teaching staff before the start of the semester and get their feedback on where improvements can be made, and what the problems were they faced in the classroom and in the hallways. He listened for over two hours as incident after incident was recited, and heard the frustration they were feeling. With that, he promised to try and institute some changes, and then a few days later met with the district superintendent about the problems his staff and school were facing. One of the suggestions he proposed was to install hidden cameras in strategic locations throughout the school. He related how they had used them in his old school, and how they were both effective and inexpensive. It would also aid him in enforcing school more forcefully. Letters would be sent out to all parents informing them of the new security procedures in place, and a list of what was expected of each student and of the guidelines and rules that would be in place. Perhaps a bit surprisingly, his suggestion was approved, and since he was simply expanding the few security cameras they had outside the school already, he got the backing of the school board as well.
One of the first things they did was to replace all the wall clocks with new ones, but ones with tiny cameras and built-in DVRs for recording. Video is captured on a small SD card that can be easily removed for later playback on any PC. He also added two spy cameras to the library; a desk lamp on one of the back reading tables, and a book camera that sat on the librarian's reference shelf. Both, recording onto internal DVRs. They could also be set to motion detect mode for after school hours.
Also functioning as surveillance cameras were the exits signs at the end of the hallways. Looking just like the ones they replaced, the pinhole cameras inside of these could record video even in low light conditions. In addition to the cameras, the principal also installed PIR motion sensors in rooms and areas not already covered by video. These would trigger an alarm if anyone were to enter a room they shouldn't be in, or enter after hours.
The principal then met with his staff once again and explained the monitoring systems that had been put in place. He also encouraged them to help in the school's goal to reduce and minimize student's misbehavior and to enforce a code of conduct in the classroom, including how assignments were to be done and turned in on time. He then showed them a pen camera that he took from his shirt pocket and the watch camera he had on his wrist. Working just like the hidden cameras that had been placed around the school, these two everyday items could also record video as well as audio. He suggested that these, and many other similar type objects, might be something they'd want to consider investing in. Inexpensive as well, they could be carried around easily and provide a measure of security when in the classroom or when outside the range of the security cameras. This was not only for the school's and the student's safety, but for that of the teachers as well.
At the beginning of the school year it became a bit amusing to watch many of the students as they walked the halls and went from one class to another. Knowing that the school was taking a stricter stance on behavior and had added new surveillance cameras throughout the building, they seemed puzzled when looking around to find where exactly the new cameras were placed. Expecting the typical surveillance camera mounted on a corner wall, as seen in most office buildings, they failed to see anything out of the ordinary. During the first few weeks the students had a feeling of caution and there was not one incident of misconduct reported. However, after a while a few began to suspect whether the new system actually existed or not. When the first student was called into the principal's office for fighting another student by the lockers, and a second was called in for sneaking a periodical out of the library, they had but few words and even more astonished faces when presented with the video evidence as it played on the principal's laptop. Word quickly spread from there, and while the majority of the student body never caught on to where the cameras actually were, the number of incidents involving thefts, fighting, vandalism, and classroom disruptions were severely reduced.
There was one other incident that did occur later in the semester, and this one set the tone that the school was serious in its new policies. A math teacher was accosted in the parking lot one day by a student of his, whom he had given a failing grade to on a test a day earlier, and then told to leave the classroom when he became verbally abusive. Seeking his retribution outside the eyes of any cameras, he waited for the teacher as he was leaving, and then pushed him against his car. In no uncertain words, he swore and threatened to physically injure him if he ever again failed him on a test or embarrassed him by sending him to the office during class. Shaken, but otherwise ok, the teacher reported the incident to the new principal. Fortunately, he had heeded his administrator's advice earlier in the year and had purchased a pen camera that he used mostly for grading papers. He really hadn't used it for much else. When he saw the student approach him, though, his reflex was to push the clicker on the pen which was in his shirt pocket. By doing so it had recorded the entire confrontation. When a call was made to the parents later that evening informing them of the incident and that their son was being suspended from school, it triggered an outburst from the other end of the line. As expected, the next morning saw both parents at the school demanding to see the principal. How dare he suspend their son. And what kind of teachers were they hiring in this school? According to their son, it was the teacher who had it in for him and purposely failed him on the test. More than likely because their son was Latino. Furthermore, they had it from their son that he only approached his math teacher as he was leaving to ask him a question, and inquire how he might pick up his grade by doing extra credit. By their account, it was the teacher who became physically and verbally abusive. The father again brought up racial bias as being at the root of all this, and vowed that they would be meeting with their lawyer that afternoon to file charges against the school. He was not about to let it rest.
The principal listened patiently as the parents unleashed their anger, and then calmly informed them that the whole incident had been caught and recorded on video. He brought up the clip on his laptop, hit play, and turned the monitor around so they could watch and listen. It lasted less than a minute, but the silence that filled the room was deafening. The father swallowed hard while the mother turned her head to look away. The words came hard, but the father acknowledged that a mistake had been made. Their son hadn't been truthful with them, and this seem to hurt just as much as witnessing their son's grievous actions. With humility, the father apologized for their outburst and then for their son's behavior. He accepted the suspension, and promised the principal that he would come down with his own form of punishment at home. He thought he had raised his son better than that, but apparently he took too much at face value and missed many of the warning signs. He vowed that if his son was allowed back, he would return with a new attitude.
That was the last major incident to have happened at the school, and while there continued to be some rumblings from parents about legalities and privacy issues, there were no violations of the law. What was seen, though, at the end of the school year was a dramatic reduction in theft, vandalism, and misbehavior, and a marked improvement in overall grades and test scores. Admittedly, even many of the students agreed that the cameras had made an improvement and provided a sense of security in the school that they hadn't felt before. Do we need more surveillance measures in our lives, and should all schools adopt this same policy? I don't think so. Hidden cameras do serve a purpose and when used judiciously can be an effective tool to alleviate a growing problem or concern. In this instance, and quite possibly for many other similar schools in our cities across the country, a system of hidden cameras may be the answer to creating a safer learning environment, and allowing our teachers to do more teaching and less policing in the classroom.
