Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to a piece of news dated 13 Sept, namely ‘Local school puts cameras in bathrooms’. I am against the installation of video cameras to fight bullying in schools in Hong Kong.
Firstly, in the news, the principal of the school installing video cameras outside students’ bathrooms claimed that the cameras just monitor the doors and so the recording would not capture the students’ most intimate activities. However, I do not think that can be guaranteed. You really cannot ensure how much area can the camera capture. It may be too far to reach where students have intimate activities. This really makes students feel uncomfortable and there is still the chance of students’ intimate activities being captured.
Secondly, it is really a matter of intrusion of students’ privacy. Bathroom is a private area for everyone. If cameras are put in bathrooms, privacy is really seriously violated. It is just like being watched while having a bath, and it is just disgusting. Privacy should be the basic right of students, and it may even is a crime. So, how can schools protect students’ ‘safety’ when even their privacy is not surely protected?
Thirdly, is there really an extreme need of putting cameras in students’ bathrooms? I do not believe there is. Is the condition of wrongdoing in students’ bathrooms really so serious? I think if it is compared with some public bathrooms in prisons, the situation in students’ bathrooms is of course comparatively low. However, even installation of cameras in public bathrooms is not allowed, so how can it be done in students’ bathrooms? Even if it is not under the control of laws, at least there is really no need to do so. Are students really so not trustworthy? Do students really need the schools’ every-second watch to behave well? I totally cannot agree with that. I think it will just give the public a feeling that the school does not trust its students, or the truth that students in that school are just too bad that the school is forced to do so. Both situations give a bad image of the school and the school would just be badly affected － fewer and fewer parents send their children to the school. So, is there still a reason of installation of cameras in students’ bathrooms?
Lastly, are the surveillance cameras really and useful anti-bullying tool? Can they really safeguard students effectively? I think it is not really effective. First, if cameras are installed just outside the bathrooms and can just monitor the doors, as said in the news, what if students have wrongdoing outside the area where the cameras will capture? Then that cannot be recorded. Also, if students are deliberate to have wrongdoing, they will of course have many ways not to get themselves be recorded so that they can have wrongdoing and at the same time not being caught. So, really think carefully whether installing surveillance cameras can really have the expected results.
More importantly, schools, having so many education workers, can’t think of any better solutions to ensure students’ safety? Being education workers, their responsibility is clearly to educate students. So why don’t they spend more time to teach students more on safety? Like if teachers are worried that students’ belongings are unsafe in bathrooms, they can just let them be more educated in protecting their belongings. Installation of cameras can just cure the symptoms but not the disease. To really help students not to have wrongdoing, education should be a better way.
All in all, I think I really cannot agree with the issue of installation of video cameras outside students’ bathrooms. I really hope no more schools will use such extreme ways to treat the students again!
Yours faithfully,
Pat
Pat Li