School cameras necessary sign of times

In an ideal world, school boards would not feel compelled to spend on surveillance cameras tens of thousands of dollars they would rather spend on reaching education objectives.

But in a world replete with bomb threats, school shootings and a thick catalog of student conduct and behavior issues, school boards probably would be remiss if they didn't employ cameras.

Board members of Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 voted last week to install cameras outside bathrooms at Vernon Hills High School this summer.

At least 10 other Lake County high schools use cameras. And as the Daily Herald's Russell Lissau reported Wednesday, 60 percent of U.S. high schools were using at least one security camera by the 2003-04 school year, an increase from 39 percent just four years earlier -- about the time of the Columbine High School shootings.

In the case of District 128, board members will now do at Vernon Hills High School what they've already done at Libertyville High School. Authorities installed cameras at Libertyville High this spring after a series of bomb threats seriously disrupted classes and attendance there. Officials have not monitored a live feed from the Libertyville cameras but have reviewed the cameras' DVD recordings as needed.

Some observers, including some students, raise privacy concerns. While that's understandable, it seems misplaced in the way that District 128 is using cameras. Authorities are installing some cameras near restrooms, but cameras will not record any activity inside bathrooms. Cameras also will record student activity in hallways, but courts have ruled -- reasonably -- that students do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the hallways of public schools.

In short, these cameras are legitimate tools in keeping with authorities' overriding responsibility to provide students a learning environment that is as safe and secure as possible.

Might school officials use recordings to deal with issues less dramatic and severe than bomb threats -- such as students just messing around in the hallways? Sure. We expect, though, that District 128 officials will be judicious in their use of recordings and will not use them to intimidate or harass students. One privacy advocate told Lissau that he likes to see schools destroy recordings quickly, when their security value has been spent, and we're confident that district officials will be judicious in that regard, too.

This use of cameras is far less intrusive than school policies that permit authorities, for instance, to search student cars without probable cause. Installing and using cameras in the manner District 128 is doing is simply one more prudent step in keeping our schools safe.