A school had to introduce cameras

introduced cameras in the high schools

9:31

There was a man on YouTube who started the Clippy movement because he was tired of companies pushing consumers around and trying to take advantage of them. I saw one of his videos where he criticized a school for introducing cameras in high schools. He argued that it was Orwellian and an invasion of privacy.

However, I disagree with him on that point.

From what I have seen and heard about what goes on in many schools, cameras can actually help protect students. For example, there was a girl who said she did not want to go to school anymore because the students were out of control. Kids were complaining that when students were bullied, sexually assaulted, or physically attacked, teachers often did nothing. Many students repeated the same thing: the teachers would not intervene.

There are also cases where cameras have helped reveal serious abuse.

In one case, a female teacher sexually assaulted a young female student. The teacher’s lawyers tried to argue that the child, who was around 11 years old, was somehow responsible. However, security footage showed the teacher molesting the child. Without that footage, it might have been much harder for the victim’s mother to defend her daughter.

In another case, security footage showed a teenage boy physically abusing his girlfriend in a high school. Only a few teenagers stepped in to help. None of the teachers did. The students were actually more willing to help than the faculty.

There was also a case involving a toddler in a daycare. The child was a nonverbal autistic toddler named Mikko, whose story was discussed on the YouTube channel The Gentle Life. Her parents chose that daycare partly because it had surveillance cameras. Since their daughter could not speak clearly, the cameras were supposed to protect her if something went wrong.

At one point, Mikko went into a room with a teacher and came out crying. She said that she had been hurt. Because she was just starting to recover from her nonverbal era of her autism, it was difficult for her parents to understand exactly what happened as she mispronounced her words. When they asked the daycare to show them the surveillance footage, the school first reviewed the video and then told the parents that they did not need to show it because nothing conclusive appeared.

The parents were understandably upset. They argued that if nothing had happened, the daycare should have simply shown them the footage to prove it. Instead, the refusal made the situation look suspicious. As a result, they removed their daughter from the daycare and eventually chose to homeschool her because they no longer trusted the school to protect her.

Cases like these are one reason I believe surveillance cameras in schools can be helpful.

Another issue is that many teenagers do not report abuse or violence. I had a friend from Haiti who sometimes tried to do voice acting for my indie games when I was developing them. He told me that he was regularly beaten and bullied in school but never reported it to the police. He said he did not want to ruin the other teenagers’ futures, even though they were harming him. In other words, he valued their future opportunities more than his own safety.

Because of this mindset, a lot of abuse never gets reported. Many teenagers are either afraid to tell their parents or simply choose not to. Sometimes they are threatened with more violence if they speak up. Other times they just keep it to themselves.

This means that serious crimes like assault may never be reported to the police. Yet legally, beating someone up is still physical assault.

Interestingly, many people who stayed silent in high school start reporting crimes once they become adults. When they are in college or working, they are much more likely to call the police if someone attacks them. Some adults abuse children precisely because they believe children are less likely to report it.

There are also many examples of students attacking other students for trivial reasons. In one case, a teenager beat up an autistic student simply because they were wearing the same shoes. In another case, a boy assaulted someone he claimed was his friend just to impress a girl. The mindset seemed to be that violence would earn approval or status.

People sometimes assume that schools with higher numbers of reported incidents are more dangerous. However, the opposite may be true. A higher reporting rate can actually mean that victims feel safe enough to speak up and that authorities are willing to take action. When crimes are reported and offenders are punished, it sends a clear message that violent behavior will not be tolerated.

On the other hand, when schools try to hide incidents in order to protect their reputation, the environment can become even less safe.

In Mikko’s case, the daycare eventually released some of the footage. It showed Mikko going into the room and later coming out crying.