In Texas, the Houston Independent School District is reforming its education strategy, which includes installing cameras in classrooms.
“Every classroom has a webcam and a Zoom link, and it’s on 24/7,” Superintendent Mike Lee told Houston Public Media. “If a kid is disruptive, we pull that student out of class. We put them in what we call a team center, and they’re being monitored by a learning coach, and they Zoom right back into the class they get pulled from.”
Houston isn’t alone in its camera strategy. Effingham County, Georgia, has also chosen to place cameras in the classroom to address the escalating issues of crime and bullying in schools.
In Effingham’s case, high schools, then middle schools, were outfitted with Kloud-12 cameras. Elementary schools are scheduled to get cameras in the spring. The cost for the project is about $2 million, and once installed, the cameras provide a 360-degree view of the room.
“If there’s an issue that they bring to the administration’s attention, we want to be able to have some tool to use, whether it’s bullying, whether there’s one child bothering another child,” Effingham County Superintendent Yancy Ford told local station WJCL.
“I will say we’ve had a couple of situations where we have been called upon to use it, and it’s worked.”
Most schools (91 percent) already used cameras to monitor hallways, doors, and outside areas, during the 2019–2020 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). But bullying in schools has continued to escalate.
Specifically, 40 percent of youth reported being bullied on school property in the past year, according to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America Youth Right Now 2023 survey, and 38 percent didn’t tell an adult. The report surveyed more than 130,000 children aged between 9 and 16 and is considered the nation’s largest data set on kids and teens, the Boys & Girls Clubs says.
In addition to bullying, parental concerns over curriculum post-COVID-19 have increased, and some lawmakers, such as Iowa Republican State Rep. Norlin Mommsen, Florida Republican State Rep. Bob Rommel, and Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) see cameras in classrooms as a way to encourage parental involvement and hold teachers accountable to parents.
Others are concerned about violence and shootings at schools.
In 2022, there were 305 school shooting incidents, according to the K–12 School Shooting Database—a significant increase from 2021’s 250. And so far, for 2023, the database has recorded 231 shooting incidents. The database includes incidents in which “a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason,” the website states. It also includes “gang shootings, domestic violence, shootings at sports games and afterhours school events, suicides, fights that escalate into shootings, and accidents.”
The FBI characterizes crime in schools and colleges as “one of the most troublesome social problems in the nation today. Not only does it affect those involved in the criminal incident, but it also hinders societal growth and stability,” the agency’s “Crime in School and Colleges” report states.
Despite the possible benefits of cameras in the classroom, some schools and counties, such as Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS), have been forced to axe plans for classroom cameras due to fierce opposition and claims of privacy invasion.
Cameras in Class
For students who reported experiencing bullying, 46.7 percent said the bullying occurred in a classroom, according to NCES.
Further, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that bullying often occurs in “close proximity of teachers,” but teachers “underestimate the extent of bullying” because they lack the full context of what’s happening. That’s when cameras can be an effective tool, camera proponents claim.
As a warning, the NIH adds, “School bullying is considered a common precursor of youth violence.”
Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur professor of economics, delivers his lecture under a security surveillance camera mounted above the teacher's podium in a classroom in Beijing on June 12, 2010. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
According to nSide, a school safety organization that helps schools prepare for emergencies, installing cameras on school campuses “reduced recorded instances of bullying up to 70 percent.”
Mr. Ford agreed and told WTOC, “If that one child thinks not to harm another child or bully another child because there’s a camera in the room, then we may have saved that other child’s life because we don’t know how long it’s been going on or where it’s been going on.”
Several lawmakers advocate cameras to provide parents access to the curriculum and teaching methods.
In February 2022, Mr. Mommsen introduced House File 2177 in Iowa, which proposed putting cameras in each classroom so that parents could access live video feeds. The purpose of the cameras, Mr. Mommsen told The Iowa Torch, was to “showcase the great work our teachers do and continue the parent involvement that has begun since COVID.”
Mr. Mommsen also saw the measure as a way for teachers to be more transparent to parents about their curriculum and teachings. He told the Des Moines Register, “I look at it like remote learning; it did spark parental interest in what was going on in the schools, and that’s what I was trying to nurture and continue.”
Lucie found healing from severe childhood bullying and now works as a passionate young missionary in Paris. (Courtesy of Rebecca Friedlander)
Similarly, in Florida, Mr. Rommel introduced HB 1055: Video Cameras in Public School Classrooms, which would have required Florida public school teachers to wear microphones and be recorded by video cameras in their classrooms.
Mr. Rommel wrote on X in February 2022: “Our children must have a world-class education, and we must take every precaution to keep them safe. Safe from bullying, safe from abuse, and safe from teachers with an ideological agenda. The key is to make our classrooms transparent and accountable.
“That’s why I filed legislation to put security cameras in every Florida classroom. While the radical Left wants to take control of our kids, conservatives want to keep parents in charge.”
Both HF 2177 and HB 1055 failed to pass during the legislative session.
Kids head home after school in Albany, Western Australia, on Aug. 28, 2023. (Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times)
Despite the defeat, calls for cameras in classrooms have continued. Mr. Good posted on X a portion of his July 2022 speech at a Campbell County school board meeting in Virginia.
“The silver lining of what we all went through [with COVID-19] over the last few years was that many parents saw, across the country, across the commonwealth, what was happening in classrooms and in schools as their kids were learning at home,” he wrote.
He called for classroom cameras so that “parents and family guardians can dial in at any time and see what’s happening in the classroom.”
“We want to make sure there’s not indoctrination going on in the schools,” he wrote.
Mr. Ford, Mr. Lee, Mr. Mommsen, and Mr. Good didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ requests for comment by the time of publication.
Privacy Concerns
Some teachers and parents are fighting back, saying classroom cameras are going too far.
In October 2022, Kansas City Audio-Visual Inc. sent a $6.7 million proposal for adding 1,600 cameras to classrooms in the KCKPS district.
The district is “looking at updating their classrooms with a fisheye security camera to assist in teacher and student safety,” the proposal states. It notes that the cameras will assist with “teacher and student safety” and allow teachers to record their lessons to help with virtual learning needs.
The backlash to the proposal was swift and sure.
At a school board meeting, kindergarten teacher Shalesha Parson said: “I do not teach or promote racial theories, gender views, religious views, or political views. I personally believe these issues are for the parents of the students.
“Teachers under audio and video scrutiny is not the answer. I spoke with several teachers, and we do not want to teach in a fishbowl. This tells us that we are not valued, trusted, or respected as educators. ... This is a huge invasion of privacy for teachers and students.”
Ms. Parson threatened to leave if the district installed cameras.
A camera at St. Elizabeth Catholic Academy in Ozone Park, Queens, on Sept. 15, 2015, which is the first school to install Scotti’s pro bono bulletproof walls and advanced surveillance system. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)
Another employee of KCKPS, Barbara Williams, said: “Surveillance systems treat everyone as a constant suspect at the expense of students’ and staff’s privacy. Constant monitoring creates this culture of fear and paranoia that truly isn’t the most proactive response to safety concerns.”
She said that she feared for “gender non-conforming students” and their feelings of safety because such students could fear being “outed” to their “family or other people that they haven’t come out to yet.”
Several other teachers and staff voiced opposition to the measure during the meeting.
In response to the pushback, KCKPS sent a survey to its staff throughout the district and received 1,480 responses. Just above 86 percent said they opposed cameras for “security/surveillance issues,” and almost 90 percent opposed the idea for “instructional purposes.”
KCKPS ultimately scrapped its plans to install cameras in classrooms.
Camera Bills Passed
In Texas, an 8-year-old autistic student named Micha told his mother, Beth Watson, that his teacher “pulled his shoes off his feet, threw him to the floor,” and placed him in a “calm room” alone, according to the International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership (IJEPL).
When Ms. Watson investigated her son’s claims in 2012, she “learned that while in the seclusionary time out room alone, Micha screamed. Furthermore, during one of the physical battles with his teacher, Micha hit his head on the floor. Throughout the ordeal, his teacher taunted him and called him a ‘baby.’”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signs a bill into law on May 24, 2021. (Courtesy of Gov. Kay Ivey's Office)
Cameras in the classroom caught the abuse on camera and other abuses, prompting the Texas Education Agency to investigate. As a result, Texas implemented Texas Education Code Section 29.022, requiring Texas public school districts to place cameras and surveillance equipment in specific special education classrooms upon request, the Texas Association of School Boards reported.
“Although students with disabilities who receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) makeup only 12 percent of the student population, 58 percent of that 12 percent are placed in seclusionary time out, and 75 percent of that 12 percent are physically restrained to reduce mobility,” the IJEPL states.
In July, Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 56 into law. The law, which went into effect on Sept. 1, requires cameras to be installed in certain education classrooms when funding is available. The act is also called “Tyler’s Law.”
Katie Spence is a freelance reporter for The Epoch Times who covers energy, climate, and Colorado politics. She has also covered medical industry censorship and government collusion.
Ms. Spence has more than 10 years of experience in media and has worked for outlets including The Motley Fool and The Maverick Observer.
She can be reached at: [email protected]
