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Is it appropriate for schools to have CCTV or similar in toilets and changing rooms?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
for further information, I once worked upgrading the servers for a school and know for a fact that the school in question had webcams in changing rooms and toilets.
What do you guys think? Is it part of a schools duty of care to monitor areas where teachers can't be in case something happens? Is it a step too far?
What do you guys think? Is it part of a schools duty of care to monitor areas where teachers can't be in case something happens? Is it a step too far?
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Or, you're a male PE teacher, you can't follow your girls into the changing room can you?
Even if it's a place they can be, there's CCTV in the rest of the school for when teachers aren't there, so changing rooms and toilets too much, or enough?
I don't have an issue with monitoring open areas of the school, including the sinks area of a toilet, but I have serious issues where surveillance is monitoring areas where children and young adults will be in a state of undress. If we know anything, it's that few institutions are competent enough with IT security to actually manage the images appropriately.
^ This.
In my school, there was always a (same-sex) teacher in or at least in the vicinity of the changing area when we had PE. Usually because they were making sure everyone was changed before the lesson could start.
If a school could secure their network appropriately, would that ameliorate your concerns?
No.
I would assume that having a camera in the sink area would show the kid going into the stall, and it would show the explosion and the fire and everything they would need to know.
I don't think schools can secure networks appropriately. I know the University I work for can't...
Changing rooms in school are hellish enough for most kids without throwing in a camera as well.
I'd be questioning why there were no staff about to ensure that it didn't happen. CCTV may or may not allow a prosecution but it doesn't stop the attack happening- having staff about would have done.
CCTV is a cheap alternative to doing the job properly. Always has been.
This...
2, what about bad teachers. We all know they're not all good people.
2. Bad teachers should be removed from the profession, not have their shortcomings glossed over by invading the privacy of the kids they're teaching.
If it's ok to put cameras in the toilets and changing rooms of a school then it's acceptable to put them in ALL toilets and changing rooms.
Children can't be under CCTV supervision 24 hours a day 7 days a week for their entire childhoods - so there will also be the potential that someone can take them into a quite corner and do them harm. Realistically the school changing rooms are very low risk.
If I were a parent and I found out my childs school had CCTV in the changing rooms I would be horrified and seriously consider moving them to another school.
I don't think that duty of care trumps the right not to be filmed, without consent, while undressing or using a bathroom. I'd say that the duty of care should prevent the filming of minors in situations of undress.
It's fundamentally wrong to infringe upon the privacy of anyone, be they child or adult, to prevent a theoretical incident.
My point was that if it's wrong to put them in school changing rooms then it's wrong in clothing stores as well.
Being an adult doesn't make it ok for someone to hack the camera and even if it did, children and teenagers buy clothes too.
I am a parent with kids at school. CCTV in toilet cubicle or changing room is just wrong IMHO. The staff are responsible for maintaining my child's safety and should be there to monitor, not some remote CCTV system.
Who are they going to get attacked by? All the rest of the students should be in class. The obvious solution is to not let more than one student out of the class. The chance of meeting someone from another class who just happens to be going to the toilet at the same time and just happens to have a reason to assault you is miniscule. Bullying tends to occur with groups of students, not individuals. And if it is a risk, simply tell students they can only use the toilets between lessons, like my school used to.
Would you accept CCTV cameras in the changing rooms of your local swimming pool? If not, then why should you expect teenagers to accept the same thing?
Children and young peope are vunerable as it is, lets not take away their personal space and dignity.
. I've solved quite a few crimes where the actual crime has taken place in a play area, then the naughty person has gone into the toilets to change their clothing after an assault or transfer the stolen property to another bag or do a little bit of drug dealing.
As for the security aspect, the system is monitored, but very few people have access to it, and they are either myself, pastoral/security staff or senior management (who don't know how to use it so in effect the total number of users is normally 4). It's not on a network, it's a closed system so it's not hackable either from outside either.
As another note, the only place in schools we now tend to get any real crime is in the school changing rooms. Phones going missing e.t.c. because despite us telling them not to bring them in, not to leave them unattended, kids know best
Many kids have good reason to bring them. How else are they meant to contact their parents if they're going to be late home?