Welcome To America's New Surveillance High Schools (forbes.com)
- Reference: 0180438031
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/22/1154232/welcome-to-americas-new-surveillance-high-schools
- Source link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/12/16/ai-bathroom-monitors-welcome-to-americas-new-surveillance-high-schools/
Similar systems are [1]spreading to campuses nationwide as schools try to stop mass shootings that killed 49 people on school property this year, 59 in 2024, and 45 in 2023. A 2023 ACLU report found that eight of the ten largest school shootings since Columbine occurred at schools that already had surveillance systems, and 32% of students surveyed said they felt like they were always being watched. The technology has a spotty track record, however.
Gun detection vendor Evolv, used by more than 800 schools including Beverly Hills High, was reprimanded by the FTC in 2024 for claiming its AI could detect all weapons after it failed to flag a seven-inch knife used to stab a student in 2022. Evolv has also flagged laptops and water bottles as guns. Rival vendor Omnilert flagged a 16-year-old student at a Maryland high school reaching for an empty Doritos bag as a possible gun threat; police held the teenager at gunpoint.
Not every school is buying in. Highline Schools in Washington state cancelled its $33,000 annual ZeroEyes contract this year and spent the money on defibrillators and Ford SUVs for its safety team instead.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/12/16/ai-bathroom-monitors-welcome-to-americas-new-surveillance-high-schools/
Re: (Score:1)
Can I state, up front, if you enter this bathroom then I can kill you? What's the difference?
Re: Bathroom = Expectation of PRIVACY (Score:2)
"Unreasonable search and seizure" only applies to private dwellings and the actual body not public spaces. I agree that these devices need to go but your constitution citation is wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
My high school didn't even allow doors on the bathroom stalls. You might want or expect privacy but you are unlikely to get it.
Re: (Score:2)
> And those "Listening Devices" are a direct violation of the 4th amendment.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the idea of a listening device in bathrooms creepy and mortifying.
I think it will take a court case to decide whether a minor has an expectation of privacy for their conversations in a public bathroom. While that makes sense, I'm sure someone can make a plausible case that this is OK. Video cameras would be something else.
Re: (Score:2)
If I were a student in one of these prison hellholes, I'd make sure that they heard ample farting, straining, and whatever else. We have to make the administrators' lives have meaning, after all.
Re: (Score:2)
Bathroom privacy hasn't seen this much scrutiny since the implementation of "Troy's Law" to combat the terror caused by the "Ass Crack Bandit" attacks back in 2014.
Education Funding (Score:3)
Imagine if those millions of dollars were spent on teaching students.
Re: (Score:2)
> Imagine if those millions of dollars were spent on teaching students.
I'm sure the district would love to spend the money that way, but we live in a society that values easy access to guns more than it values safety, so the district's hand is forced.
Seriously (Score:3)
"Similar systems are spreading to campuses nationwide as schools try to stop mass shootings" No laws, cameras, or any type of surveilance ever stopped a crime from happening.
Sorta (Score:2)
I'm no fan of surveillance, but in Detroit they have a "Green Light" program, where high-risk businesses, like gas stations and 24-hour convenience stores, can opt in to a program where the police department gets direct access to their camera system. So, if a place is held up, once an alarm is triggered the video gets sent to the police immediately, and they can get a description of the perpetrators and vehicle immediately.
From people I know who are familiar with the project, it actually does work. Crim
Re: (Score:2)
> No laws, cameras, or any type of surveilance ever stopped a crime from happening.
Tell that to Australia who just had their first mass shooting with a fatality in three years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_Australia); they have some of the most strict gun laws in the world.
Sounds like a prison. (Score:3)
Society: trending down.
Schools are just too big. More local schools with smaller buildings and a hell of a lot less administration department. All this weapon detection and eyes everywhere just says school buildings have become too big to manage in any reasonable way. I'm not saying we should go back to the little schoolhouse in every neighborhood, but almost.
False Positives (Score:2)
You have to wonder if the false positives are intentional. If not for false positives, they would hardly flag anything at all and people would think they aren't working.
Yet another price to pay... (Score:1)
... so idiots can own guns.
Re: (Score:2)
... or so children can stay idiots. Instead of [1]learning some reponsibility. [americanmilitarynews.com]
[1] https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/02/pics-wyoming-elementary-school-trains-kids-in-marksmanship-during-pe-class/
AI Camera Analysis (Score:2)
I am doing AI analysis on my own ip cameras and have said many times during the project that I'm glad the only penalty for false detection of a threat is a notification to me. Last night at dusk it hallucinated a black bear in my yard. I can make it more accurate by providing more data, but it takes longer and costs more.
Motorola is mostly a fascist company now (Score:2)
A huge chunk of their money comes from selling some of the worst crap to cops. There's a thing called cop City in I think Georgia where Motorola and one of the company paid for 2/3 of the building. It's a massive complex for training police. Motorola gets the money back when the cops buy tech and weapons from them.
This kind of blending of government and Private industry is a huge component of fascism. It's also all kinds of fucked up do you have a private company giving the cops tens of millions of doll
Gun? (Score:2)
> flagged a 16-year-old student at a Maryland high school reaching for an empty Doritos bag
"Drop the chips and put your hands up! This school has an exclusive contract with Cheetos."
Decisions, decisions... (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, the USA could: (1) pass sensible gun laws and get guns off the streets, amending the Constitution if necessary, or (2) permit the proliferation of guns and then build a giant surveillance system that turns schools into virtual prisons and incidentally provides corporations with oodles of data on your kids that they can monetize while making fuck all difference to school shooters.
The USA never disappoints and always chooses the shittier option.
Government putting microphones in restrooms (Score:2)
IDK why people here, of all places, are defending this so ardently. Would it be OK if the government put microphones in your hotel room? Or your office? Or your bedroom?
It is always adults (Score:2)
Materializing their problems and insecurities into behaviors that hurt kids.
"multiple threats" (Score:2)
"The surveillance system spots multiple threats per day, the district said."
I'm wondering how many of these 'threats' are legitimate and actionable, and not false alarms. But aside from that, surveillance cameras are already pervasive and you can expect to be visible on one almost everywhere you go in an urban or suburban setting. Video doorbells and home security systems have views of the street. Retail stores and any large building will have security cameras. Some big box stores I've visited have a mobile
IN 90210 they have the funds to overpay for shirty (Score:2)
IN 90210 they have the funds to overpay for shirty tech with nice kickbacks
Re: (Score:2)
> IN 90210 they have the funds to overpay for shirty tech with nice kickbacks
I bet those wearables are stylish though.