by
Kim Champley
| Sep 05 2008, 10:47 AM
Filed under: General, News, K-12
Today's post is brought to us by Matt Scherer. Matt is the chief executive officer of Scherer Communications and an advocate for security cameras in schools and classrooms. Enjoy!
For the past couple of years, my wife volunteered to teach high school students who had failed her high school Integrated Physics and Chemistry course. Unlike her current physics classes, Jackie had a lot of discipline issues with some of her students.
In one case, a student had stolen a scientific scale from her classroom by having one his classmates distract my wife at the end of a period. Fortunately, another student told her about the theft, and Jackie reported it to her administrator.
Using the school surveillance cameras located in the hallway and outside on the parking lot, an assistant principal saw the student hide the scale in the dumpster. However, it took the principal and my wife 45 minutes to locate the student and then find the video clip where the student placed the school property into a garbage can. Using the school's network of security cameras, they followed the student as he took the scale to a bathroom. (When the principal showed the video clips to the student, he told him that he had sold the school property to one of the local drug dealers.)
As someone who works in public relations for a security companies, I had asked my wife why her school hadn't placed security cameras into her classroom. Documenting the theft would have taken at best, five minutes.
I was not prepared for my wife's response to what is a common practice for documenting theft in a commercial situation. It seems that she wouldn't want a camera in her classroom because she would fear that one of her principals would remotely log into her camera and watch her teach her students.
"I am afraid that one of them would see my turning my back to a student and that he or she would admonish me," she said.
I find her response incredulous for a teacher of her stature. First, my wife has won national awards for her teaching expertise. Secondly, she's a tenured teacher. She shouldn't have any fears about a surveillance camera in her classroom.
However, if her district were to add surveillance cameras into her classroom, it would take some changes in administrative policy concerning their use for educators like her to accept it. I believe that if her district had a well-defined policy that allowed its administrators to only use the cameras for discipline issues that it would alleviate the fears by educators about using surveillance cameras in her classroom.
And, when those discipline cases occur like the theft of the tool, valued at $100 or when a student hurts another student, the use of a video surveillance film can clearly document the incident for the benefit of the child's parent or guardian.
When students know that their misdeeds are being captured on a video surveillance camera, I believe that it can help enforce discipline with those at risk children. It also can clearly document to their parents or guardians their misdeeds in the classroom.
Once teachers overcome the fear of "Big Brother" factor associated with surveillance tools and accept the use of surveillance cameras, it only can help improve classroom behavior. Yet, districts and their school boards have to address the legitimate fears resulting from teachers believing that an administrator will misuse these devices to monitor teaching performance.
A well defined district policy that eliminates the use of a classroom security camera as a supplementary evaluation tool will help teachers overcome their fears about their operational use for purposes other than enforcing discipline. With that in place, teachers can get back to focusing more of their attention on teaching their students.