Keaau High School removes cameras from kid's bathrooms

[HiloJulie]

Funny. I pictured you as the guy being the one pushing another student’s head into the toilet! (Joking!!!)

Considering that a camera in 1963 would be as big or bigger than the toilet as well as requiring an operator, I’m sure that incident would not have happened! Unless the camera operator didn’t like you either.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The fact that we have to even ask the question
there is an expectation of privacy 

An expectation of privacy in a public restroom?  With multiple stalls and numerous people coming and going?  I think context is important, and asking what the contexts might be is important.

[Durian Fiend]

shows the camera and was taken from inside the stall. 

Do you know from where inside the stall?  Was the student sitting?  

They'd have to be standing. 

I initially thought it was a camera outside a large restroom with multiple stalls and sinks, but after watching the video it appears to be a single, handicapped sized toilet stall.  

Besides pulling the camera, putting back a full floor to ceiling door frame would address the concerns.

[terracore]

My high school didn't have any cameras. The technology wasn't there yet.

There also weren't any doors on the stalls. It was probably the #1 student complaint.

My HS also had a smoking section... for students... so no need to smoke in stall. Why couldn't we have doors?

It was also constructed with a rifle range in the basement, though that had been discontinued several years before I got there and it was turned into a classroom and storage area. I took AP History down there. I literally learned about the 2nd Amendment in a high school rifle range. The shooting club had to go off campus when I was enrolled. Prior to that students would bring their rifles to school, gun racks in their pickups and everything. Sometimes they would go hunting after school. There was never an incident.

Times have changed. But cameras in the bathrooms is wrong.

[HiloJulie]

But cameras in the bathrooms is wrong.

Exactly. On every front. 

An expectation of privacy in a public restroom?

Yes. Recording everything except the physical act of going to the bathroom in a bathroom presents a whole plethora of questions. Why not have cameras in the locker rooms? Dressing rooms?  Why have separate boys rooms and girls rooms in a public setting where “numerous people are coming and going?”

The legal issue of recording where one or more may be in a state of undress is a hurdle impossible to justify under any circumstance. 

[Rob Tucker]

I'm going to bet that the only reason cameras came into play was the strong were preying on the weak and the school felt an obligation to protect the weak. Try to think of some belittled boy or girl afraid to use the restroom because it is off the radar and they are afraid.

[HiloJulie]

Try to think of some belittled boy or girl afraid to use the restroom because it is off the radar and they are afraid.

Valid point.

Except what has happened is we have created a group of kids now afraid to use the bathroom because they don't know if their being recorded.

At any event, I think the decision was poorly thought out. Further, if there was a real concern by administrators of the school about bullying and when you consider bathroom usage during school hours is limited to a few minutes between classes, instead of administrators sitting behind a computer watching videos, how about they get off their ass during class breaks and roam the halls and bathrooms to insure the safety of the students?

[randomq]

HiloJulie, you want teachers and administrators in the stalls with minor children?!?!?! Disgusting! That's worse than the cameras that were never actually in the stalls! %)

Seriously though, I've heard about some of the psycho students roaming the halls in Pahoa HS, and don't blame administrators for trying to improve safety. No doubt when someone gets beat up or raped in a bathroom parents will be threatening to sue over the lack of cameras.

[Durian Fiend]

Try to think of some belittled boy or girl afraid to use the restroom because it is off the radar and they are afraid.

Valid point.

Except what has happened is we have created a group of kids now afraid to use the bathroom because they don't know if their being recorded.

At any event, I think the decision was poorly thought out. Further, if there was a real concern by administrators of the school about bullying and when you consider bathroom usage during school hours is limited to a few minutes between classes, instead of administrators sitting behind a computer watching videos, how about they get off their ass during class breaks and roam the halls and bathrooms to insure the safety of the students?

Teaching HS requires instructors to be on their feet most of the day, when done well.  It's typically not a "sitting on your ass" job. 

So, standing outside the classroom door at breaks? Sure, that's a simple thing to do that can be helpful. Asking teachers to roam the halls and restrooms  would probably not go over well.  Making a quick pass through the restroom or just standing outside the door would be OK.  Maintaining a presence there? Well, no.

[leilanidude]

I've heard about some of the psycho students roaming the halls in Pahoa HS
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Halls? The outside walkways maybe. About 97% of Pahoa HS is covered by cameras and security has a room where they sit and watch, all day long.