"Curtis CCR" wrote in message
om...
"Poop Dogg" wrote in message
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"fuller" wrote in message ...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A Tennessee middle school allowed security
cameras to film children undressing in locker rooms and then stored
the images on a computer accessible through the Internet, according to
a lawsuit filed by a group of angry parents.

The lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Nashville seeks $4.2
million in damages.

The parents contend the school system violated students' rights by
putting hidden cameras in boys and girls locker rooms at Livingston
Middle School. The cameras reportedly captured students, ages 10-14,
in various stages of undress.

The parents should have been more active when the school district
originally proposed putting cameras in the schools. Chances are,
the parents were simply told that "security cameras" would be
installed in the schools, something bound to garner no opposition.
They probably never imagined that the schools would do such a
reprehensible thing, especially considering that there are already
various laws prohibiting security cameras in areas where people
have a reasonable expectation of privacy - places like bathrooms
and changing rooms. The parents definitely have a lawsuit and
the school and district officials should face criminal
prosecution as well, addition of child pornography charges would
certainly be in order as well.

I agree that the placing of cameras in a locker room is probably
illegal (I don't know about TN, but I am pretty sure it would illegal
in CA unless certain safeguards were in place). But the notion that
it amounts to child pornography is quite a stretch. The idea that you
could get that to stick is pretty far fetched. There may very well
have been some perverted intention on the part of somebody involved,
but unless you can prove that the people behind this were doingthis to
get their rocks off, it amounts to criminal stupidity and that's about
it.

And often the cameras are placed because of vandalism, which locker rooms
and bathrooms are prone to. My school does have them outside the doors of
such rooms, but not inside, AFAIK, specificially so that if vandalism
occurs, there is a record of who might have been responsible, and it can be
narrowed from there.

I'm guessing this was stupidity on the part of whoever placed the
cameras-outside the bathroom, OK, Inside, dumb.

And I can't imagine why those records would be accessible via the internet.
Our tapes are archived for X number of months (I think 3), and never are
looked at unless there is some cause to do so. If there has been a problem
in a specific area (like someone messing up the bathrooms during lunch)
someone might watch that specific camera at that specific time to get
information, but otherwise, they're really not used.