CLAIMS by the pressure group Big Brother Watch that thousands of
schools, including scores of church schools, use security cameras
to deter intruders and prevent vandalism and violence were
confirmed this week by the Local Government Association and
diocesan education authorities. The Big Brother Watch report, Class
of 1984, said that the average secondary school now has 24 cameras,
and academies about 30.
The report also states that more than 200 schools and academies,
some of which were church schools, had installed cameras in
lavatory areas. The director of education for Liverpool diocese,
Jon Richardson, said that the primary purpose of surveillance
cameras was to protect buildings from vandalism and students from
harm. Where they are used in lavatory areas, they would not be
trained on individual cubicles but on the washbasin areas, which
were often hotspots for bullying. Many newly built schools were
being designed to make washbasin areas visible to passers-by, he
said.
The diocese of London's interim director of education, Inigo
Woolf, said that security cameras were ubiquitous and often an
insurance requirement. An LGA spokesman said: "Head teachers and
governors are best placed to know the needs of their school."