Pandemic Policy Turned Schools Into Surveillance States

Even before the pandemic, creeping surveillance was making the open campus a thing of the past. Exaggerated security fears intersected with the declining cost of technology to turn many schools into panopticons. ID tags tracked students, cameras watched their behavior, and software monitored their online activity. Then COVID-19 appeared and safety at all costs became a driving consideration, leaving a Big brother-ish legacy that will linger in public schools long after the virus has been forgotten.

In December 2020, in the midst of pandemic panic, education publication The 74 warned of a “massive ecosystem of products that have flooded the school-safety market this year as education leaders work to mitigate the pandemic’s enduring disruptions to student learning.”

“Student tracking badges, surveillance cameras and contact-tracing cell phone apps have come under significant scrutiny from privacy advocates, who question the products’ effectiveness and accuse them of subjecting youth to over-the-top surveillance,” author Mark Keierleber added. “But company executives and school leaders who’ve bought the products say they are here to stay.”

As was the case elsewhere in society, pandemic fears overwhelmed civil libertarian concerns about privacy with public health arguments that prioritized limiting the spread of disease. Companies that ran into headwinds peddling surveillance products in normal times eagerly latched onto concerns about contagion to market their products.- READ MORE