Coincidentally I just watched this Defcon talk on these popular bathroom 'smoke detectors' that can detect vapes and listen in on conversations - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCnojaEpF2I
While he stood at the urinal he managed, with a little more fingering, to get it unfolded. Obviously there must be a message of some kind written on it. For a moment he was tempted to take it into one of the water-closets [toilets] and read it at once. But that would be shocking folly, as he well knew. There was no place where you could be more certain that the telescreens were watched continuously.
Worth mentioning that "no digital recording devices in bathrooms" is something explicitly called out in the boy scouts' anti-child abuse training, mandatory for any adult volunteer.
> The surveillance system spots multiple threats per day, the district said.
… multiple threats a day?! At 1 high school?! Citation needed on that. I know that US high schools have a reputation of being unsafe, but I highly doubt there’s near-HOURLY thwarting of “threats”. Are we talking about rule breaking (vaping in the bathroom, skipping class) or bullying? I would assume so.
The fact it’s then immediately followed up with stats about gun violence does sort of imply we’re talking about serious threats…
Sure, maybe you go full-prison mode if there’s an hourly murder, but that’s so outside the realm of reality that I’m not willing to even entertain that as being a possibility. You would’ve run out of students by now.
> The report also found that the surveillance fostered an atmosphere of distrust: 32% of 14 to 18-year-old students surveyed said they felt like they were always being watched.
Only 32% felt they were always being watched, but in reality 100% of them were always being watched.
As it turns out, the constant state of fear and paranoia is more profitable than gun control. I'm sure many parents even support it, knowing that their kid can be shot any day at any time, and not having much political power for an alternative solution.
At what point is anyone going to say enough is enough? When will somebody stand up and call out their gaslighting excuses and insist on them stopping their false pretense of concern and altruism? When will see the perpetrators being confronted for their real criminal intent?
Our local high school has had a shooting or stabbing in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Last month, 2 students were shot and there have been 3 lockdowns at the school so far this year (that's 3 in 3 months). This school is in one of the most affluent parts of the bay area (in the hills surrounded by multi-mullion dollar homes and redwood trees). For most of my life, I've been ambivalent about surveillance cameras (neither in favor nor against them) but now I lean towards supporting efforts to install them (especially since the shootings at Brown and MIT). If they eventually help to apprehend a killer before they hurt someone else or cause people to think twice about even bringing a weapon to a school, then that benefit overrides any "atmosphere of distrust." Nobody wants to get a call that their child has been shot at school.
San Francisco was one of the harshest lockdown cities on the planet with one of the longest school closures anywhere in the industrialized world. West coast cities absolutely fucked over their kids.
> Our local high school has had a shooting or stabbing in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Last month, 2 students were shot
That is astonishing. How do people tolerate that risk to their kids? I would refuse to send my children to a school that dangerous. I have lived in a country that had a civil war and large scale terrorism and my kids were never exposed to that level of danger.
My school had one stabbing in its history, which is not not far short of two hundred years. That is my expectation of the norm for a school.
This was at Skyline High in the Oakland hills. Most people who live in the area send their kids to private schools. A few days after the shooting, another school shooting took place - this time, at Laney Community college just a few miles away. The former football coach (who had also been a coach at Skyline) was killed.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 53.7 ms ] threadWhile he stood at the urinal he managed, with a little more fingering, to get it unfolded. Obviously there must be a message of some kind written on it. For a moment he was tempted to take it into one of the water-closets [toilets] and read it at once. But that would be shocking folly, as he well knew. There was no place where you could be more certain that the telescreens were watched continuously.
- George Orwell, 1984
… multiple threats a day?! At 1 high school?! Citation needed on that. I know that US high schools have a reputation of being unsafe, but I highly doubt there’s near-HOURLY thwarting of “threats”. Are we talking about rule breaking (vaping in the bathroom, skipping class) or bullying? I would assume so.
The fact it’s then immediately followed up with stats about gun violence does sort of imply we’re talking about serious threats…
Sure, maybe you go full-prison mode if there’s an hourly murder, but that’s so outside the realm of reality that I’m not willing to even entertain that as being a possibility. You would’ve run out of students by now.
Only 32% felt they were always being watched, but in reality 100% of them were always being watched.
We need to stop this nonsense. Fear, surveillance, and distrust are out of control.
And did the surveillance equipment catch the perpetrator?
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Brother_(Doctorow_novel...
That is astonishing. How do people tolerate that risk to their kids? I would refuse to send my children to a school that dangerous. I have lived in a country that had a civil war and large scale terrorism and my kids were never exposed to that level of danger.
My school had one stabbing in its history, which is not not far short of two hundred years. That is my expectation of the norm for a school.