No brainer
Install them
If you don't like them you are free to find a good private school

No brainer
Don't install them
If you do, you are sending a message to all young people that adults don't trust or respect them. That is a shameful message to send, and the fact that this is even being considered is despicable!

I wonder if Mr. Glass understands that private school is not an option for most families???

Big Brother is always watching.

I wish Fairfax County would instead focusing on upgrading Blackboard so that it can work with all the mobil devices like the iTouch and iPad.

How about we take the money to be spent on cameras and the money now spent on the SRO and use it to provide full time adolescent psychologists in every secondary school to serve as a resource for teachers and administrators in the handling of behavior issues in their students and to provide general advice to students in handling the stress of the high school years in a high achieving community like Fairfax.

If there had been this resource at South Lakes and Fairfax, Josh and Nick might still be with us.

It is very sad that when parents and parent advocacy groups have worked so hard to move the FCPS discipline system towards a more restorative, educational, and therapeutic process, that there is "enthusiastic" support for surveillance cameras by the administration. This is a terrible backsliding to the "old ways" of a criminal and punitive approach to disciplining children. Fairfax County parents and children deserve greater respect.

There are many better ways to spend $8000 per school than installing video cameras.

Video cameras gather objective evidence that protect the innocent and catch the guilty. Unless your child is a troublemaker and you don't want to face that fact, how can you oppose this? Grocery stores, gas stations, banks, and all sorts of other public places we go routine have surveillance cameras on us--why not public schools? There is no rational expectation of privacy in public places in public schools (granted, cameras trained on bathroom stalls would be different, but I don't think that's being proposed). Respecting students and parents means providing them with safety and fairness, and that's what video cameras would do.

I agree.

Video is great - if your intention is to pick up suspects after something awful has happened. As a preventative measure they're become less effective every day.

I'd much prefer to see an actual human paying attention to the kids in their care. And, since eight grand won't get us another security guard, it's probably better to just save the money, for now.

There is no downside to having cameras. They are everywhere; why not in schools. Do it.

I would rather have my kids in a school building instead of a trailer. Don't you realize that the money to buy the cameras is coming from CAPITAL dollars? I vote for badly needed renovations. I say NO to cameras!

Someday the medical community is going to realize that transmitting high-bandwidth 5.8HGz video wirelessly through the halls all day in a building with children and adolescents who was not a good idea.

In my home, I have taught my children that Americans are free from the government watching them on every minute of the day. That freedom is the main basis of oursociety. The invasion of video cameras into every day life is a huge negative. It allows a central government to pick and choose which videos to use, who to grab and who to let go.

A couple of questions:
1. Show me evidence that there is a violent crime problem in FCPS High Schools that justifies these cameras.
2. Will parents and the public be able to access these tapes when a staff member has been accused of doing something wrong?
3. Since ALL money I pay in taxes to Fairfax County, and then transfered to FCPS is intended to pay for education, how can anyone claim this will be paid for by the High school Principals association?
4. Show me evidence that video cameras will deter violent crime.

To those who think video cameras are objective evidence. You should review the case a few years ago at the University of Maryland where the video tapes "disappeared" when the Police were accused of wrong doing. That young man may have trusted the "system" before that event, but I am certain he would not think highly of video cameras today!

The downside of video cameras is that the central authorities have another tool to choose which students to expel because they now have a new "objective" source of evidence to abuse.

I do not know MR. carver or Mr. Deale; however, I agree with their comments. As I have closely followed FCPS business for many years, I am once again deeply disturbed by this "one size fits all" sledgehammer approach to an issue. Oh, as noted by another previous poster, this is money that could be spent on improving school infrastructure.

if the objective is to document emergent foodfights so that the evildoers can be processed through the criminal justice system, i think the idea doesn't have my support.

if the objective is to capture wrongdoers in the halls, then that seems naive also, since they know how to avoid them. Heck, an experienced bully knows how to evade detection, so why would we think this would be different? No joy here.

First, I would like to know which surveillance/security company would benefit from our taxpayer money. I would like to know what situations have contributed to student misbehavior: overcrowded conditions? insufficient time to eat a meal? Have principals looked at other high schools private and public where food fights are not a problem?
Finally, has the food fight problem been adequately investigated or did a private consulting firm "sell" this idea to FCPS. If so what is their fee and how much does this cost.
What does surveillance of individual citizens cost us in our future America? I think today is Constitution Day so this would be a good time to hear the debate among FCPS students on the topic of privacy rights and our Constitutional freedoms.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizure, shall not be violated. I wonder if surveillance counts as a search?

I asked one of my HS students for thoughts about this idea. Answer: Shrug, I think they already have them. Didn't bother the student since this student is focused on getting an education and getting on with life. I found the answer illuminating. If the kids potentially being filmed already think they are being filmed, and don't particularly care ... why not just TELL them we're spending the money. Any deterrent effect has already been achieved by perception.

I wish Kurt Vonnegut were still around to read this. "O brave new world that has such people in't."

As long as the areas under surveillance area places like entrances and exits, hallways, parking lots I don’t see a problem.

I can understand the concern if someone wanted to put a camera inside a classroom.

For cafeteria placement alone it would cost over $230,000. School wide implementation would be close to $3.5M. Now is not the time for this kind of spending. I disagree with idea in general, but more importantly, it is not a fiscally responsible choice at this time. Further evidence needs to be presented to prove that the program would even have a positive effect as well. A previous camera program implemented in the county two years ago did not show any reduction in theft problems in the cafeteria and was discarded.

Costs will exceed these projections with ease. Not to mention the long term cost of data storage, maintenance, and life cycling. Put the money towards getting our little guys out of the modular homes on the school grounds or improving the poor quality of food... maybe pay our teachers a little more.

I've agreed with many of FCPS's decisions in the past, but this is just going too far. There is no evidence whatsoever that cameras would prove to be an effective means of quelling misconduct at lunch; furthermore, I can tell you first hand from a student's perspective that there are hardly any problems at lunch, anyway; my conjuncture is that this is the county still dwelling on last year's food fights. Those students have probably moved on; I would even go as far as to say that more than a few of them have forgotten about the incident. Even if there were problems at lunch, many of them could potentially be attributed to overcrowding in the cafeteria; I'm sorry, but even with 4 lunch blocks, it is way overcrowded. If FCPS wants to solve that issue, they should just give us the option to eat outside. Even if the funds for the cameras wouldn't come out of our tax dollars, there are other options for spending this "principal's association" surplus, many of which are much more beneficial than installing security cameras, such as raising the wages of our supporting, dedicated, and hard-working teachers.

Krikeys, every camera has a dead spot. If I were one of the thugs in school, I would just sneak up through the blind spot and paint the lens, if not rip it out of the ceiling/wall altogether.

This idea of cameras in the schools is going to cause more problems than it's going to solve. But if they should decide to put cameras in the schools, I would want to have my youngest's IEP meetings recorded so that I can post on YouTube how FCPS Spec Ed staff loves to browbeat parents into accepting THEIR uncompromising my-way-or-the-highway version of what constitutes a Free and Appropriate Public Education.

To everyone who says that Fairfax schools should trust the students more and that's a reason not to have cameras, please take a look at these recent survey results of FCPS students that show 25-40% of HS seniors think it's okay to lie and cheat: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/education/2011/07/students-accept-cheating-they-get-older

Bottom line, a very significant chunk of Fairfax HS students cannot be trusted. I am not defending any particular disciplinary action that may have been applied in the past, but that is not the issue here. Even if the discipline is serving in a soup kitchen or cleaning the property, that requires proper identification of who was acting inappropriately, and cameras would provide some help in that. The worst thing you can do is take the kids' word for it, because a lot of them do not think they need to practice honesty.

My best guess is that Heather in Fairfax does not have children - or at least not children of h.s. age??? My biggest hope is that she does not actually teach or otherwise interact with high school students on a daily basis, as no one with such disdain for young people should be doing so. I am sure she is a good person and I do not mean to come across as being ugly - I am just stating that I couldn't disagree more with her assessment of the "morals" of our students and parents in this county. That there are some students who do not adhere to rules and some parents who do not enforce them, does not amount to an entire population of anarchists who do not discipline their children and teach them right from wrong.

For those who suggest that cameras are widely used in other public places, I have two points to make:
1) they are called surveillance cameras, and the word "surveillance" is used particularly with prisoners or those under suspicion
2) a school is set apart from other public places by the fact that its very foundation is (or is supposed to be) a supportive community that provides acceptance and belongingness.
When schools adopt practices (and they often do) that neglect and even undermine students' experience of membership in a supportive community, there is something very wrong. As I said way earlier, installing cameras only sends the message that students are not trusted. Trust goes hand-in-hand with respect, and both are fundamental principles of "community."

Wow, very thoughtful and civil (except for a blip) discussion here. Want you all to know that the Fairfax County Council of PTAs (FCCPTA) general meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 7PM at FCPS admin bldg (8115 Gatehouse Rd., Falls Church, Virginia, 22042) in the 1st floor cafeteria. The agenda is centered on the surveillance camera proposal. Your reasoned participation is welcome!

Therese,

Thank you for the invitation to FCC PTA's general meeting on this topic, and for the FCC PTA hosting this event.

I shall certainly attend.

Heather, Joe, Ben, Sandy, KB, L Bligh, "The Convict" and everyone else who has commented. If you attend, please feel free to introduce yourself that evening. The more robust our conversation, the stronger our democracy.

My name is Mike Kane and I'm running for the VA house of delegates in the 41st district. I do not support cameras in any schools in Virginia. The whole idea really infringes on students privacy, and will serve as a distraction. Please visit my website www.kanefordelegate.com for more information.

Michael Deale...I will certainly introduce myself if I can find you. I would like to tell you, though, that FCPS only ADVERTISES that it has a PBIS program in place. It is true that some elementary schools do have very organized and successful PBIS programs - but it is certainly not something that is in place in every elementary school. Furthermore, I would venture to say that you would be hard pressed to find a PBIS system in middle schools - and even harder pressed in high schools. Don't get me wrong - there will be principals who TELL you their school has a PBIS program, but ask the students and they will have no idea what you are talking about. If students are not aware of a positive behavior system, there isn't one!

That said, I absolutely agree with you that we should spend money on educating and helping, rather than catching and punishing. The latter seems to be the school system's approach to everything - and is definitely the motivation behind the camera proposal.

Both the elementary schools my children have attended use PBIS techniques. Many children seem to respond favorably to them, but I'm afraid my own kids thought they were idiotic. I did point out that it made sure students were praised for good behavior and not merely chastised when caught breaking rules, and they agreed it sounded good, but was still lame. So, like so many things, it depends on the student.

Until you people have been in the middle of a food fight in a HUGE cafeteria with hundreds of kids, watch what you say! I'm a student and it was ugly and aweful! I wish the administrators knew who did it so that those people could get punished. Lots of us who were innocent were supposed to nark on our peers. I didn't want to get involved. Bring in the cameras so we can catch the aweful beahvior. ALso, it might help get the kids who sell drugs. Guess what parents - kids sell drugs all over high schools... welcome to 2011!