[Infowarrior] - How obscure security makes school suck

[Richard Forno]

http://boingboing.net/features/security.html

How obscure security makes school suck
By James Stephenson
I graduated from Virginia's public schooling system two years ago, but  
my memories of it are fresh. After all, my little sister is still there.

Being a kid today sucks. I couldn't tell you if it sucks more or less  
than other generations because I wasn't a part of them. But I can tell  
you that the reasons why it sucks are new -- and about some of the  
unfair acts perpetrated in the name of education.

Unlike the webcam snoopers of Lower Merion school disctict, ours  
doesn't have the money to buy every kid a laptop. That will probably  
change soon; the cost of laptops is plummeting. If our school district  
(and most school districts in the US) don't have a laptop for every  
child within the next five years, it'd be a surprise. And when my  
school district gives out hardware, I'm certain that the  
administrators would watch us with them if they could, just like the  
students at Harriton High School. The thing to remember about the  
public schools of today is that students are treated worse than  
criminals. Everyone is presumed guilty until proven innocent.

I remember the day they installed the cameras in my high school.  
Everyone was surprised when we walked and saw them hanging ominously  
from the ceiling.

Everyone except me: I moved to rural Virginia from the wealthier and  
more heavily populated region of northern Virginia. Cameras have  
watched me since middle school. So I wasn't surprised, just  
disappointed. "What have we done?" asked one of my friends. It felt  
like the faculty was punishing us for something. A common  
justification for cameras is that they make students safer, and make  
them feel more secure. I can tell you from first hand experience that  
that argument is bullshit. Columbine had cameras, but they didn't make  
the 15 people who died there any safer. Cameras don't make you feel  
more secure; they make you feel twitchy and paranoid. Some people say  
that the only people who don't like school cameras are the people that  
have something to hide. But having the cameras is a constant reminder  
that the school does not trust you and that the school is worried your  
fellow classmates might go on some sort of killing rampage.

Cameras aren't the worst of the privacy violations. Staff perform  
random searches of cars and lockers. Most of the kids know about  
locker searches because they see the administration going though their  
stuff in the hall. But not everyone knows about the car searches, all  
the way out in the parking lot where administrators aren't likely to  
be observed. (People don't often bother to lock their cars, either).

My best friend found out about the car searches the hard way during  
our senior year. They searched his car and found a stage sword in his  
trunk. It was a harmless fake, the kind of sword that is used as a  
prop on stage. My friend is a live-action role playing enthusiast, and  
he had planned on going to a friends house to fool around after  
school. But the school has a zero tolerence policy on "weapons." He  
was expelled. The school claimed that he had "recourse." He could have  
appealed his case--to the same administration that had kicked him out.  
But the injustice of it is is that he was kicked out first, and only  
then offered a hearing. Guilty until proven innocent.

This could have easily have happened to me. One time when I was still  
in middle school, I went on a camping trip with my scout troop. As  
usual I packed my camping equipment in the same backpack I used for  
school. Only when the weekend was over and I went back to school, I  
realized with horror that my pocket knife was still stuck in the  
bottom of my backpack. If administrators had searched my bag, not only  
would I have been expelled, I could have been arrested.



The sad thing is that the school district I've described is one of the  
better ones. In northern Virginia, the measures are even more  
Draconian. They have heavily-armed and -armored police officers  
roaming the halls. Students undergo a mandatory security orientation  
during their first week of middle school. In it, a police officer goes  
through the implements they carry at all times. The police women who  
performed the demo I attended showed us how she was always wore a  
bulletproof vest, and carried handcuffs, cable-tie style restraints, a  
large knife, a can of mace, and a retractable steel baton. "It's  
nonlethal, kids," she said. "But you don't want me to have to shatter  
you kneecaps with it."

She also wore a pistol with exactly thirteen rounds: one in the  
chamber, 12 in the clip. She could have taken out a terrorist or two;  
which I guess that is what they were expecting some of us to be. At  
the tender age of 12, this made quite an impression of me, and I still  
remember the event clearly. But these methods were useless in keeping  
me or any of my classmates safe. They didn't stop the kid who flashed  
a gun at me, or the bully who took a swipe at me with a switchblade.

Some people say youngsters are more disrespectful than ever before.  
But if you were in an environment where you were constantly being  
treated as a criminal, would you still be respectful? In high school,  
one of my favorite English teachers never had trouble with her  
students. The students in her class were the most well behaved in the  
school--even if they were horrible in other teachers' classes. We were  
well-mannered, addressed her as "Ma'am," and stood when she entered  
the room. Other teachers were astonished that she could manage her  
students so well, especially since many of them were troublemakers.  
She accomplished this not though harsh discipline, but by treating us  
with respect and being genuinely hurt if we did not return it.

Being a kid of my generation isn't all bad. Thanks to the Internet, if  
we want to study something it's a matter of seconds before the  
relevant encyclopedia article is before us. It makes doing research  
papers a heck of a lot easier, even if most teachers won't accept  
Wikipedia as a source (Pro tip: teachers rarely check sources, so in a  
pinch, read the sources that are linked Wikipedia article and cite  
them instead). And even if there are lots of bullying administrators,  
there are many good teachers, too. Heaven bless the long-suffering  
school librarians: the library was the one place I enjoyed in school.  
I could always find a good book to read there, and they even had  
manga. My librarians were interested and helpful, and always wanted to  
chat about what you were currently reading. The Library and a few good  
teachers are what kept me from dropping out.

It's a shame that the football team got a bigger budget than the  
Library.

Petty acts of rebellion--and innocent little covert activities--kept  
our spirits up. The school's computer network may have been censored,  
but the sneakernet is alive and well. Just like in times past, high  
school students don't have much money to buy music, movies or games,  
but all are avidly traded at every American high school. It used to be  
tapes; now it's thumbdrives and flash disks. My friends and I once  
started an underground leaflet campaign that was a lot of fun. I even  
read about a girl who ran a library of banned books out of her locker.  
These trivial things are more important than they seembecause they  
make students feel like they have some measure of control over their  
lives. Schools today are not training students to be good citizens:  
they are training students to be obedient.

James is starting a new blog about being a scho