Legislators in the nearby state of Georgia are attempting to pass a bill that would allow the installation of cameras in special needs classrooms.
Their reasoning behind the move is to ensure teachers and students behave as they should.
With reports of students being abused either by student resource officers or teachers, the cameras are said to be a way for district administrators to ensure the children are being treated correctly.
Alternately, if a student acts out, the teacher will have a record of the inappropriate behavior.
These are certainly good reasons to install surveillance devices in classrooms. While no such legislation has been suggested in Mississippi, if Georgian lawmakers succeed in passing the bill, a similar one in our state and others would not be far off.
As someone who grew up going to school without cameras watching my every move, the thought of being watched at all times is a bit unnerving.
Just about everywhere you go in today’s world, look up every so often. I bet you find a camera pointed at you from time to time.
Society has been moving toward a practice of watching everyone’s move, and that may not be a good thing.
Sure, when a robbery, incident of abuse, or some other illegal act is caught on video, it’s great to be able to tell who did it and prosecute them for it.
At some point it will become too much.
As the lyrics to a song written by Chuck Shuldiner go:
“Privacy and intimacy as we know it will be a memory. Among many to be passed down to those who never knew. Living in the pupil of 1,000 eyes.”