“The greatest
dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal,
well-meaning but without understanding.”—Supreme Court Justice Louis
Brandeis
My granddaughter is
seven months old. Intent on discovering as much as she can about the
world around her, she is blissfully unaware of the fact that she is
under constant surveillance. Between her doting parents, her equally
doting grandparents and a baby monitor that is always turned on and
tuned in, there is little this child can do that goes undetected.
When dealing with a
precocious infant, such constant watchfulness is undeniably a good
thing. However, I can’t help but wonder at what point and at what
age such surveillance, especially outside the home, stops being
beneficial and starts teaching young people that they have no right
to privacy. When does concerned supervision become subtle
indoctrination geared toward meek acceptance of a totalitarian
society?
Modern technology now
makes it possible for roaming digital eyes to watch every move
students make. Using surveillance cameras, young people are under
observation from the moment they step foot on a bus until they
arrive home. In fact, schools both small and large are beginning to
litter their hallways, classrooms and even buses with surveillance
cameras.
For instance, schools
in Demarest, N.J., have installed surveillance cameras with live
feeds to police headquarters. Patrolling officers can access the
feeds from headquarters and several laptops. And while the cameras
are not equipped to pick up audio, the video capabilities are
“impressive.” According to a local CBS reporter, “each of the
laptops can pick up 16 different angles at one time, turning a
single operator into a mobile surveillance team.”
Viewmont High School
in Utah recently installed 36 cameras to provide school officials a
bird’s eye view of every square inch of the school’s hallways and
common areas. The cameras allow school officials to watch students
as they go between classes, pass love notes in the hallways and
gather in the school’s parking lot. “I can just simply scan through
the school in less than a minute,” boasts the school’s principal.
Capitalizing on “a
high-tech ground-breaking surveillance method,” schools in Little
Rock, Ark., have installed 700 cameras in buildings throughout the
school district. Like the Demarest camera system, these are linked
in real-time to the local police department. The technology, valued
at around half a million dollars, “allows us as police officers to
be able to review a large portion of the building,” stated a Little
Rock police officer.
Considering the rash
of school shootings over the past decade, it’s understandable that
school officials and parents would want to tighten security. Yet as
schools across the country follow this heightened surveillance trend
in lockstep, it remains unclear whether the benefits outweigh the
drawbacks.
The majority of
schools today have adopted an all-or-nothing lockdown mindset that
leaves little room for freedom, individuality or due process. Metal
detectors, drug-sniffing dogs and pat-down searches have become
commonplace, while draconian zero tolerance policies characterize as
criminal behavior the most innocuous things, such as students in
possession of Alka-Seltzer or a drawing of a soldier.
A handful of schools
have even gone so far as to require students to drape Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) tags around their necks, which allow
school officials to track every single step students take. So small
that they are barely detectable to the human eye, RFID tags produce
a radio signal by which the wearer’s precise movements can be
constantly monitored.
The prevailing
thought seems to be that adopting such stringent measures will
prevent students from committing crimes. However, security cameras
certainly didn’t prevent Asa H. Coon from wreaking havoc in his
Cleveland school. The troubled teen opened fire, shooting two
students and two teachers before killing himself earlier this
year—and that was with 26 security cameras placed throughout the
school and an armed security guard on duty.
Furthermore, these
measures dramatically interrupt the learning process, leave young
people with a sense of unfair and disproportionate punishment,
increase anxiety and promote feelings of distrust between students
and administrators. They also habituate young people to state
authority figures having access to their sensitive information and
conducting arbitrary searches, with little regard for their right to
privacy. As one reporter noted, surveillance systems serve to
“normalize electronic surveillance at an early age, conditioning
young people to accept privacy violations while creating a market
for companies that develop and sell surveillance systems.”
This observation is
in keeping with a U.S. Department of Justice report indicating that
the percentage of students across the country who noticed
surveillance cameras in their schools increased from 39% in 2001 to
58% in 2005. As the percentage increases, so too does the acceptance
of what was once considered an unthinkable intrusion. As a Utah news
station reported, “Some students say they live in an era where
cameras are always recording so the idea is not a big deal.” In
other words, America’s schools are making a police state look
normal.
We all want to keep
our kids safe and cut down on drugs, violence and other at-risk
behaviors in the schools. However, our schools are fast becoming
graveyards for freedom, and that should be cause for alarm. After
all, whatever we teach our young people today about their
freedoms—or lack thereof—will not only shape their understanding of
the role that government plays in their lives, it will also
determine the future of our republic.
Constitutional attorney and
author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford
Institute. He can be contacted at
johnw@rutherford.org.
Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at
www.rutherford.org.
