High School Students, 24 Frames Per Second

Gig Harbor High School's security cameras are there to help prevent crime, vandalism, and--apparently--kisses between students.

The kiss was between two girls, who kissed and held hands. A school administrator witnessed the kiss by chance in the lunch room. He then went and found it on the school's tape and called the parents of one of the girls in to see the tape because they had requested to know if their daughter did anything "out of the ordinary." They later pulled their daughter from the school.

Then there is this in the Tribune article:

There’s no expectation of privacy when students are in a crowded place, Nelson said. And he would have acted the same way if it had been a boy and a girl kissing, he said.

I would agree that there is no expectation of privacy in the school commons, although there might be an expectation of restraint in showing the film footage of the commons. But, Mr. Nelson, I must seriously question the next part of what you had to say. Really? If you saw a 17 year old boy kiss a girl in the lunch room, you would call that girl's parents in and show them the video? Really? I find that hard to believe.

Of course, students at Gig Harbor High feel there are other incidents where administrators have gone too far. Like using the cameras to figure out who left trash on a lunch table. Like we didn't already know high school students were messy. The principal defended the cameras:

In fact, the cameras helped the school determine earlier this month that students weren’t behind an incident in which posters appeared to be ripped from a wall. The footage showed the posters were too heavy and fell to the floor, Schellenberg said.

This is the natural progression of cameras, unfortunately. They start with well meaning people who want to fight crime and eventually end up catching kids who should bus their table better. And you can bet that Tacoma's red light cameras will eventually catch jay-walkers and people whose car tabs have expired.

I will finish with a final point. Mr. Nelson's quote finishes the article thusly:

“They’re paying good money for us to make their kids good citizens,” he said. “Whatever that means to the parents, I’ll do it.”

O, Mr. Nelson, you are quite wrong. "Whatever that means to the parents?" You've just walked into a mine field. Let's say I'm a traditional Muslim who insists his daughter wears a burqa at school. If you see her without one will you inform me? If I have told my son he shouldn't go to the Gay Straight Alliance, will you rat him out if he goes?

Public schools and their administrators should not be in the business of enforcing the morals of a student's parents, Mr. Nelson, because every set of parents has different morals and you can't possibly enforce them all. The Dean of Students should be there to make sure the students are as safe as possible. To that end I will not make a stink about the cameras, even though I hate them. But keep your cameras. But you are not the morality police. I don't believe you when you say that you would have done the same thing if it were a boy and a girl. Even if you didn't show the parents the video, it's not the kind of thing the school needs to be reporting back to parents.

Make sure they are safe, Mr. Nelson. Keep them away from drugs, stop vandalism, discipline them when needed, and work to keep your students safe. But this is way way over the line.