Stop Peer Abuse?

[Elizabeth Bennett]

Wow! Another week and another Google Alert. This time, its about having cameras in the classrooms in the United Kingdom. Wonder if this trend will hit up the United States?

A group in the UK called Class watch sets up cameras in classrooms and uses this as a basis for professional development. So far, they have been set up in over 100 schools and used for in class surveillance. They state that this is not an action of Big Brother existing but of trying to help teachers improve their performance in the classroom. Also, it can catch any abuse of peers as well. However, Civil Liberties advocates tend to disagree with this approach and see it as an invasion of the learning environment. Some at the UK Teachers Union feel these clips can be edited to make the teacher out to be the bad guy. Some at the PTA National Headquarters here in the US feel that if a demand comes in, this could be occurring in US schools at some point.

One thing I have to say is I do not agree with an invasion of privacy. As Americans, we do have our right to privacy. However, since the birth of the Internet, haven’t we lost a good bit of this privilege anyway? At the same time, having cameras in various locations has helped to catch criminals. Cameras do exist on some school buses now and in hallways. So, having them installed really should not be a big issue. One thing it would catch is any abuse that peers are giving to each other. A lot of this happens in the classroom and right under a teachers nose yet it goes undetected. This form of abuse is hard to prove because 99% of it is done away from authority. It sure would help in catching a lot of what is occurring and what parents and students bring to the attention of school personnel. The biggest problem I see is when school personnel will take these and edit them or conveniently loose them. I know that has happened in the past.

As for Big Brother, he has been hanging around for a long time. He has not entered our homes as of yet but he sure is out there in public places. I doubt he is planning to leave the building anytime soon.

[Elizabeth Bennett]

I agree, this country IS out of its mind and yes, we keep using inaffective methods. However, for this, it has been proven to work in the case of bullying. 99% of it is very hard to catch and there is a lot of silence with this because kids will not tell as they are "ratting someone out". As for the bathrooms, cameras would not necessarily go in there. They couldn't anyway as schools now have that privacy act. Does not mean it could not be caught. A teacher could open a door and hear it going on. Bathrooms are very small. As for the tapes, save them! Its proof and holds up in a court of law. At the same time, school personnel have been known to damage tapes to cover themselves.

In many cases this probably would not work but with this problem, it does. I have known cases where it has worked.....

[Elizabeth Bennett]

Hi Tubejay, thanks for your well thought out and informative feedback. It is much appreciated.....

When I was using the statement "its already a problem a little more will not make a difference" I was refering to the fact that we were already using cameras on school buses and in school hallways so having them in the classroom would not make much of a difference.

True, cameras have not stopped these behaviors. However, with this peer abuse problem, it is very hard to catch the bully hurting his victim. A lot of it happens in the classroom under the nose of teachers yet because they do not actually see the act, a lot of times the bully gets away with what he/she is doing. Some schools have been known to actually take the evidence and destroy it to cover their own butts.

Thanks for that video.....sadly, with this peer abuse problem, none of these are respected. That the biggest problem here......these rights are violated constantly and nobody does a thing about them.