As an attorney who has worked for many years with cases involving school discipline, juvenile justice and representation of teachers, I find the current argument to install more video cameras inside schools to be an extension of the historical trend toward a criminal justice approach to school discipline. Ever since the tragedy at Columbine High School years ago, school discipline strategies have focused on surveillance, police in schools, search and seizure, hearings to review evidence and student exclusion from school as the disciplinary process drags on for weeks for many cases. However, the Virginia Department of Education reports that in the 2009-10 school years, state wide suspension incidents involving weapons constituted only 1.04% of all incidents reported and drug incidents accounted for 1.6%. The largest category for that year was “defiance, disrespect and minor disturbance” at 30%.
The assumption that more video cameras in schools will deter bad behavior is unrealistic. Bad behavior can easily be moved to other locations, like the bullying that takes place in school locker rooms. Also, school administrators should understand that using video as evidence in school discipline cases is not easy. Used in a particular discipline case, the video tape recording becomes a document that could be protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). As such, the images of any other non-offenders must be redacted unless consent is granted. Not an easy task when filming a food fight. If protected, the recording may not be released to police without consent of the offending student. If the camera films special education students in the course of planned learning activities in a cafeteria, there is a potential violation of defined rights under special education state and federal laws.
The essence of school safety is grounded in real and continuing collaboration between students, educators and parents. The real deterrent to bad behavior in school is a culture of respect, accountability and open communication. When students own the problem of preventing drugs in school, that deters drug use and assists enforcement. When parents are included in the discipline process at the earliest possible stage, they are able to collaborate with school officials to address bad behavior. This is a very different direction than buying more cameras.
