Earlier this year, P.E.I’s Eastern School Board decided it would be a good idea to install cameras in all of the junior high and high schools. Supposedly, this constant video surveillance will keep the ’criminal element’ of the school in check; Maybe..
“We’re not out there in the business of spying, but we have to know in this day and age what’s happening within our buildings.” – John Miodowski, Eastern School District
It seems Mr. Miodowski isn’t familiar with what goes on inside schools in this ‘day and age’ , but feels the need to express these new dangers of school life to parents in order to ease the minds of the rightfully concerned. Like every other Liberty stealing action thrust on us by Government, it just takes one talking head with one reference to: “…..it’s a very dangerous world now….blah blah ”, to scare people into accepting the manufactured need of Government protection; especially when it comes to their children.
“If there’s incidents of vandalism going on or bullying, you know, they might be able to pick up on this and stop the situation as quick as possible,” said Miodowski.
Looking past Miodowski’s grammatical prowess, simply read his statement : “if”…”or”..”they might”. There isn’t a single concrete example given, only suggestive words. When you read a sentence like this, the emphasis is on the words : “vandalism”..”bullying”…”stop the situation”, the ‘ifs’ and ‘mights’ get lost to the catch words. This is how all advertising works – just pick up any newspaper; fear is the best closer.
The same deceptive language was used by Western School Board superintendent Dale Sabean :
“Perhaps there’s an altercation in the hallways; perhaps there’s an accusation of a theft,” said Sabean.“We’re able to use those cameras and see if there’s things going on there that we can either use ourselves or pass along to the police.”
A suggestion of theft and violence, followed by an insulting explanation of the function of a camera.
He also claims that vandalism has decreased in the Western district since the installations. He doesn’t mention anything about the theft or violence that was mentioned to sell the idea in the first place. I’ve tried to find statistics regarding school crime on PEI – for any district – and couldn’t find anything. Maybe I didn’t dig deep enough or maybe it’s not available - virtually no one would take the time to look even if it was available.
There are many other psychological aspects to knowing that you are being watched all the time that may not be immediately apparent. There have been many reports written – most notably by UN functioning bodies – that have explored in-depth the control you can hold over people, especially the youth, by having them aware that they are constantly being watched; having them aware of it is the key. One of the psyc. aspects for parents is that they don’t have to teach behavior; if your kid does something wrong, the cameras will ensure he gets disciplined for it. It promotes limited responsibilty towards the raising of our children.
Some parents undoubtedly think this is a good idea. I would say that you have very little faith in your abilites as a parent and that of your neighbor. Maybe with good reason, but for the vast majority – you don’t trust the other children at school because you’re constantly being told you shouldn’t.
The only thing that we do know with absolute certainty is that all kids will have their Liberty infringed upon whether they ‘misbehave’ or not, and whether or not cameras deter the types of activity that they supposedly ‘could’ will have to be accepted as told.
It never fails to amaze me that “We the People” ever survived without armed police in our schools, video surveillance, and drug dogs. I mean how in the world did children ever graduate from school without Big Brother’s extreme presence in our schools until now? How in the world did children ever survive being teased or taunted without an armed cop around, or video to capture it?
Perhaps the real purpose here is to get the children used to being in a police state, where their every move is screened, every action watched with video, and metal detectors at every entrance. What better way to ensure the acceptance of the police state than to get us used to it at ever younger and younger ages.