Lannan Jiang
Writing and Comp
Mrs. Garino
March, 15, 2015
What is the proper of placing
cameras on school campus?
Is it necessary to place cameras all over
the campus in school? To regard this question objectively; the answer is no. In
the 21th century, technology provides people with convenience, but sometimes it
is not necessary to use technology frequently. Placing cameras in public area
is a protection for students’ safety and security, but I disagree with putting
them inside our dorms since students need to protect their own privacy.
To begin with, the use of cameras is
certainly a method to protect students’ safety, but they should be only placed
in the public area and the entrance of each dorm. Cameras is very convenient
for teachers to observe the activity of students on campus since the campus is
too big for teachers to take care of at the same time. Not only to watch
students, but also to monitor the people who enters the dorm and campus. It is
because that the school doesn’t have a fence or a door, anyone can come in and
no one would notice. In that case, students, faculty and staff will be put in
danger if threatening people come in. So, the cameras can assist teachers to
keep track on those who enters the campus so that people’s safety can be
guaranteed. Therefore, cameras in public places effectively keep the activity
in campus under control.
Second, the cameras shouldn’t be placed inside
the dorms at all because the cameras will be regarded as an invasion of privacy.
Dorms are places where students and faculty live, where are very personal
places. Even though the cameras are set in public area, it will be still
uncomfortable with students. For instance, many of the boarders love to hang
out in common rooms to have fun, such as watching videos, playing puzzles,
eating and etc. Once there was a student told me that they were uncomfortable
eating in the common room because they feel someone was watching. There is
another issue with cameras in dorms even if they are not in the rooms: when
girls come back from shower, they always wear just a towel around them. So it
is inappropriate to set cameras in the hall way as well. As a result, students
will lose their personal privacy if there are cameras placing inside dorms.
At last, students are safe inside dorms
without cameras. Some students think cameras are needed inside dorms because
there were cases of loss of money. This is only because they didn’t lock their
doors when they go out. Locking doors before leaving is a rule that school told
us for a hundred times. What I meant by that, it probably is their own fault to
lose their properties except when an emergency happens. A student has lost her
money because she didn’t lock her door; she was the one to blame. Students may
ask what if teachers don’t notice when emergency happens without cameras? The
truth is even when teachers notice they wouldn’t get to you immediately right
after the emergency happens because of the size of the campus. Besides, there
are teachers like dorm parents to check on you all the time.
In short, cameras are quite useful in public
areas to supervise the activity on campus, but private places are not needed
for cameras because students’ privacy should be protected. The appropriate use
of cameras will benefit many people. To think from students’ perspective, they
all want campus to be a place like home, so cameras inside dorms are redundant.
“They who can give up essential liberty to
obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin
Franklin, Memoirs of the life & writings
of Benjamin Franklin.
