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Bathroom Cameras a Good Thing, Says School
Filed under: Weird But True
Someone installs cameras in the school bathrooms, hoping to catch teenage girls involved in some "horseplay." Sounds like it's time to call the police, yes? Or Joe Francis. But wait, not only is the school well aware of the situation, it put them there.
Some students had "expressed concern that the wash basin areas were not being respected by a small minority" -- and so the cameras were installed, claimed Aeron Rhys, head of Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi, a school in Wales. "The CCTV was installed to monitor these areas and it's done the trick. There's been a significant improvement." Improvement in what, you ask? Misuse of paper and soap, according to one school governor.
One parent, whose 14-year-old daughter was a student at the school, is having none of it. The cameras are an "outrageous invasion of privacy," he said. "The whole place is like they're on Big Brother. There are cameras all around the school, outside and in the corridors."
"Toilets can be areas where misbehavior occurs," deadpanned the school and local councils, who are behind the cameras. Literally and figuratively.
What do you think? Are cameras a solution or an invasion of students' privacy?
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Some students had "expressed concern that the wash basin areas were not being respected by a small minority" -- and so the cameras were installed, claimed Aeron Rhys, head of Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi, a school in Wales. "The CCTV was installed to monitor these areas and it's done the trick. There's been a significant improvement." Improvement in what, you ask? Misuse of paper and soap, according to one school governor.
One parent, whose 14-year-old daughter was a student at the school, is having none of it. The cameras are an "outrageous invasion of privacy," he said. "The whole place is like they're on Big Brother. There are cameras all around the school, outside and in the corridors."
"Toilets can be areas where misbehavior occurs," deadpanned the school and local councils, who are behind the cameras. Literally and figuratively.
What do you think? Are cameras a solution or an invasion of students' privacy?
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ReaderComments (Page 4 of 14)
2-03-2009 @ 8:40PM
Andy Bunt said...Let's keep giving up those rights people.
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 8:56PM
Lee said...HEY TEACHERS LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!!!!!!!!
2-03-2009 @ 8:45PM
Linda K said...If the cameras were aimed at the sink only thats one thing. I haven't been to school in over 30 years but if something was to happen thats the place. Smoking wasn't a problem because it was ok back then. We had a smoking area for the students. There were no doors on the stalls so there was no privacy anyway. But most of the violance occured on the bathrooms.
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 8:42PM
Amy said...Hey um Lynn...did you actually READ the entire article or just the headline??? WE are not giving up our rights to bathroom privacy...this is happening in WALES which the last I heard is in EUROPE...
Reply
2-05-2009 @ 11:06AM
b26g116 said...Do you really know these people? How about the happily married couples that are together for 20 years until the wife finds out the sweet loving man she married is a sick twisted pervert that likes little girls? You never really know a person and having your child or you go into a restroom to change or whatever is private! What are they doing with the tapes? Who is watching them? Stop trusting people that "pretend" to care and are really exploiting young girls. Next thing you know someone steals or leaks a copy you or your little girl is the next hot shot on the internet. Yes, stalls are meant to change into, but how easy is that? I am petite and I had a hard time changing for afterschool activities in a stall. So to the school that did it,........You are Promoting Men and Women the Look at Young Girls! Next years window clings should read " We support sex offenders".
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 8:50PM
Ann Ponzi said...All I can say is that things are a little differennt since I went to school. My friends and I smoked in the bathroom, but we didn't do soap tricks, or tare up the place. I have a idea: teachers being assigned to walk in the bathroom every so often. Or a security guard. But, I think I would object to cameras. Well, it would have be pretty bad to think about such a thing.
So, to the bathroom hangouters, behave yourself. \
And to the authorities, don't take away privacy unless there is a crime.
my advise,
ann
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 10:37PM
MMAgirl7 said...Teachers already monitor halls between classes but during class they have to TEACH and monitor their own classroom. Those teachers who are on their planning period are not paid for that time and have other things to do anyways. I'm not sure about other schools, but ours did have a security guard. He was only one person in charge of the security of an ebitre school and he, being a male, obviously could not enter the girls bathrooms.
2-03-2009 @ 8:58PM
lEE said...ALL IN ALL WERE JUST BRICKS IN THE WALL!!!!
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 10:11PM
ame s said...I have become comfortably numb.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
2-03-2009 @ 9:00PM
Beverly AK said...Some of the comments here are the reason for some of the problems we have in schools today. The first is "You can't make my kid do that." This is something that would make them be responsable, and put peer pressure to work. It was common at one time for the kids to do chores in school and at home but not these days. The other thing is the "You can't disipline/say that to MY kid." There was a time not that long ago where any kid could be disiplined by any adult and usually when one got home they were disiplined again because their parrents were told by that adult. It keeps order if one knows that someone is watching. We have lost this, and now kids say you can't do anthing to me and the parents get irate if you correct their child. ommunity responsablity is something lost in this age of raising children.
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 10:13PM
ame s said...You made many good points.
When I was a kid, if you got into trouble at school, you got in trouble at home. Corporal punishment was still allowed in schools while I was growing up. The public schools in my area use the "extra mile" system. The kids spend a day/several days one on one with cranky, formerly retired teachers ;) Most kids are only sent to "extra mile" once.
As far as peer pressure goes, I remember the admin trying to pull that when I was I was in high school by making us sit in home-room instead of getting "free period" after fights on the school grounds. Sorry, but it wasn't my job to talk some reason into the heads of those 2 200 pound football players who were punching each other in the face. "Peer pressure" is just asking for an ass kickin, or worse.
It all starts in the home. My daughters have to follow the rules at home, and have always followed the rules at school. I have never had a teacher complain about the behavior of either of my children.
It's not a matter of me (or school staff) having to "make" my kids do something or not do it, they just do or don't because they know the rules.
2-03-2009 @ 8:59PM
marksmant02 said...Sounds like another scum bag princple with what I call "Little Napoleon syndrome", it's like the old man at the dump, who feels empowered because he can tell his better educated, more well to do, "Superiors" where to dump thier trash so he can pick through it.
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 9:02PM
marksmant02 said...White princple, black kids, right?
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 9:36PM
ame s said...Ha, Mark, your comment made me laugh because the male classmates involved in the"pee on the radiator" incident I mentioned in an earlier comment were white boys.
2-03-2009 @ 9:58PM
marksmant02 said...ame s,
I know, I was being a gad fly, the school is in Wales, the kids might be Muslim, but not very likely black.
2-03-2009 @ 9:03PM
ame s said...I would like to verify that I only support the cameras viewing the sink area,not the stall area.
My children are being watched. Both of their schools have several cameras.
I would also like to state again that Retired Army Vet Nurse whatever Michelle can kiss my ass for making the silver spoon comment. No one in my household was born with silver spoons in their/our mouths. There was nothing in either of my previous comments that said I considered my children "too good" to clean a bathroom. I DID say that it is not their jobs to clean up after other kids at school.
Stupid Ass.
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 9:13PM
Janella67 said...When I was in the 5th grade, I was caught slinging water all over the mirrors in the girls room at school .... guess what happened .... I was made to clean it up .... Did I do it again? NO .... Teach a lesson, make them clean it up. Someone will tell who the culprit is if you don't already know. Quit being perverted and lazy and exercise your right to discipline the kids at school ... and if their parents don't want them punished .... give them bathroom duty!
Reply
2-04-2009 @ 12:07AM
ame s said...LOL! And you never did such a thing never ever ever again and I would bet your home is quite clean and tidy because you learned your lesson at an early age. Great comment!
2-03-2009 @ 9:09PM
d. said...I agree with AME S. Assaults DO occur all too often in school toilets..You would think (wishful thinking) that high school age people would have been taught how to behave and what complications/deadly issues could be caused when these guys throw those huge, heavy, solid metal trash cans OVER the top of stalls onto peoples' heads in those stalls; unconsciousness, concussions, brain hemorrhages, skull fractures, EVEN DEATH.....but they aren't being taught at home, and they aren't caring what they do. Girls act the same too in their toilets...I SAY PUT THEM IN THERE, just not in the actual stalls.
Reply
2-03-2009 @ 9:14PM
T L C said...Lauren,
The articles refers to cameras in the 'toilets' because by toilets they mean bathroom. The cameras are NOT in the stalls. That said, I empathize with both sides. Something needs to be done and no one wants to pay for more monitors. Which is worse: Cameras facing the sinks (you can install the ones that do not rotate), or an adult bathroom monitor? Anything that will address the issue, whether security, monitors, clean up duty, etc, will be attacked because people have problems with it. I wouldn't want my kids cleaning up other people's crap... their own and their families' fine, but not others. On the other hand, I don't want them to have to use such facilities on a daily basis. Maybe the school should have a parents elect a council and students elect a council just for this type of problem and let them decide. They need a SOLUTION, not everyone telling them what is wrong.
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