Nanananananananana Police State!

[durhamleft]

NANANANANANANNANANANNAA......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/09/schools-surveillance-spying-on-pupils


'Every day in communities across the United States, children and adolescents spend the majority of their waking hours in schools that increasingly have come to resemble places of detention more than places of learning. From metal detectors to drug tests, from increased policing to all-seeing electronic surveillance, the schools of the 21st century reflect a society that has become fixated on crime, security and violence."

So reads a passage from the opening pages of Lockdown High, a new book by the San Francisco-based journalist Annette Fuentes. Subtitled "When the schoolhouse becomes the jailhouse", it tells a story that decisively began with the Columbine shootings of 1999, and from across the US, the text cites cases that are mind-boggling: a high-flying student from Arizona strip-searched because ibuprofen was not allowed under her school rules; the school in Texas where teachers can carry concealed handguns; and, most amazingly of all, the Philadelphia school that gave its pupils laptops equipped with a secret feature allowing them to be spied on outside classroom hours.

Just about all the schools Fuentes writes about are united by a belief in that most pernicious of principles, "zero tolerance". Their scanners, cameras and computer applications are supplied by a US security industry that seems to grow bigger and more insatiable every year. And as she sees it, their neurotic emphasis on security has plenty of negative results: it renders the atmosphere in schools tense and fragile, and in coming down hard on young people for the smallest of transgressions, threatens to define their life chances at an early age – because, as she puts it, "suspensions and academic failure are strong predictors of entry into the criminal justice system". There is also, of course, the small matter of personal privacy.

It would be comforting to think of all this as a peculiarly American phenomenon. But in the UK, we seem almost as keen on turning schools into authoritarian fortresses. Scores of schools have on-site "campus police officers." One in seven schools has insisted on students being fingerprinted so they can use biometric systems for the delivery of lunches and in school libraries. Security systems based on face recognition have already been piloted in 10 schools, and on-site police officers are now a common feature of the education system. Most ubiquitous of all are CCTV cameras: in keeping with our national love affair with video surveillance, 85% of secondary schools are reckoned to use it, even in changing rooms and toilets

Continues in the article

[VirgJans12]

Wow, what the hell?

I'm glad none of that was in my Dutch school. Except for the camera's. But only in the hallways.

[Тачанка]

Fuck this. Where is the self-determination of the people? Why can't the people take the power in their own hands? Why can't we own guns in europe? Why are there cameras, which don't help in stopping crime whatsoever, can't we FUCKING defend OURSELVES?

Because we are not allowed to. We are criminals if we do defend ourselves. We are rejected the neccessary tools to do so. The media and educative system does not teach people to be self thinking, caring individuals, but egoistic, mindless drones.

State monopoly of force my ass.


Yesterday, a social democratic 19 year old told me that without the state I despise so much, there would be anarchy.

Guess what I said.

When there is anarchy, then there will be order. The people will finally arise and take their fate into their own hands, forming people's militias of self defence against hoodlums and criminality, throwing out the bosses without the state defending them and building a new society, a socialist society. If not... Barbarism. (Anarcho-Capitalism, lol)

Of course, from that moment on, she thought I'm nuts...

[magicme]

I remember as a bairn feeling well sorry for those East Germans being spied on by their stasi as we used to hear about on the news, we don't hear too many of those kinds of comparisons now. CCTV in changing rooms and toilets, what can possibly go wrong?

True story - used to work at Asda, Sunderland. The security guards spent most of their days perving on female customers through the cameras. That's when they weren't pretending not to notice when the proper scary thieves were in.

Question - if you launch the communist revolution in Durham do you think you might get unrestricted?

[VirgJans12]

Of course, from that moment on, she thought I'm nuts...

You're not?


;) :D

[Heathen Communist]

This is ridiculous. My only comfort is that it won't last forever.

[Misanthrope]

At my school, cell phones are searched and seized on a daily basis. Deans and school police are scum, they violate students rights and instill fear in them and collect a big check. Seriously who the hell thinks that is a good learning environment?

[VirgJans12]

I have a question for those from the UK and US.

Is this 'school police state' only in high schools or also in universities and college? Does it differ depending on the level of the high school education?

[the Leftâ„¢]

@ op

Is this "nananannana" like the batman theme

or "nananananan" like Bill Murray golfing

[Welshy]

I have a question for those from the UK and US.

Is this 'school police state' only in high schools or also in universities and college? Does it differ depending on the level of the high school education?


At my university there are cameras everywhere, after 8pm you have to sign people into your dorms (maximum amount you can sign in is 4), there are police patrolling all the time (sometimes 2 cars in the same place), and you often find police officers in the lobbies of the dorm where people get signed in at night.

[Ose]

I have a question for those from the UK and US.

Is this 'school police state' only in high schools or also in universities and college? Does it differ depending on the level of the high school education?

I'm from the UK, and I never experienced anything like this either at school or college. Maybe I'm in the minority though, I don't know.

[durhamleft]

I remember as a bairn feeling well sorry for those East Germans being spied on by their stasi as we used to hear about on the news, we don't hear too many of those kinds of comparisons now. CCTV in changing rooms and toilets, what can possibly go wrong?

True story - used to work at Asda, Sunderland. The security guards spent most of their days perving on female customers through the cameras. That's when they weren't pretending not to notice when the proper scary thieves were in.

Question - if you launch the communist revolution in Durham do you think you might get unrestricted?

I'll tell you what pal, durham will be the last place the revolution starts in, its about as militant as sussex

[durhamleft]

@ op

Is this "nananannana" like the batman theme

or "nananananan" like Bill Murray golfing

Bat Man, duh. It's like we currently can't stop our liberty being eroded away so rather let's make it an anime. The adventures of Captain Cameron etc

[durhamleft]

I'm from the UK, and I never experienced anything like this either at school or college. Maybe I'm in the minority though, I don't know.

My school finger printed me when I was 11 never asked my parents for permission etc. Parents found out and made them destroy it but they finger-printed the whole year 7 at the time (2005ish)

[ryacku]

My school finger printed me when I was 11 never asked my parents for permission etc. Parents found out and made them destroy it but they finger-printed the whole year 7 at the time (2005ish)
What? Was it in response to any incident in particular?

[Misanthrope]

I have a question for those from the UK and US.

Is this 'school police state' only in high schools or also in universities and college? Does it differ depending on the level of the high school education?

I haven't experienced college or university life yet. But it is so much easier to control high schoolers because there aren't as many of them and they are in one building. Also, let's face it.. they're less informed. University life is completely different, a lot more freedoms.

[Per Levy]

sick, never had this in my country/school but i can see that happening in the nearer future. schools should be places of learning instead they're places of oppression.

[Misanthrope]

"The same people who control the school system, control the prison system, and the whole social system" - Dead prez

[CommieTroll]

I go to a Catholic school but its nowhere near as bad as what is described here :L:laugh:

[durhamleft]

What? Was it in response to any incident in particular?

no was for library

[Johnny Kerosene]

My school has cameras in the halls, some of which don't work, and two cops who hang out. And a shitty county wide uniform policy where everyone has to wear collared shirts that are a solid color, and either jeans, khakis, or a skirt that goes below the knees, all of which much be a solid color. Oh, but you can wear school shirts and shit that aren't collared. I remember when they first established that it was definitely going to happen towards the end of my tenth grade year, this one kid was talking to the teacher about it and said "I think that a lot of students will abuse the school shirt privilege." I was like "It's our damn right, not a privilege," and I wanted to slap the shit out of him. I should wear a plain knee length skirt to school one day and say that it's within dress code.

[Ose]

My school has cameras in the halls, some of which don't work, and two cops who hang out. And a shitty county wide uniform policy where everyone has to wear collared shirts that are a solid color, and either jeans, khakis, or a skirt that goes below the knees, all of which much be a solid color. Oh, but you can wear school shirts and shit that aren't collared. I remember when they first established that it was definitely going to happen towards the end of my tenth grade year, this one kid was talking to the teacher about it and said "I think that a lot of students will abuse the school shirt privilege." I was like "It's our damn right, not a privilege," and I wanted to slap the shit out of him. I should wear a plain knee length skirt to school one day and say that it's within dress code.
If you're citing this dress code as an example of oppression in school, remember that a lot of people have to wear a set school uniform, with no room at all for individuality. I did up until the age of 16, and I guess I was just conditioned into thinking nothing of it. Hell, we saw being allowed to wear what we wanted one or two days a year (at a cost of £2 to our parents) as a privilege.

But cameras in the corridors and cops on site? That would have been unthinkable. As I said, it's easy to be conditioned into accepting things, especially if it's from a young age.