ACLU Report Exposes Students Concerns Over Increased Surveillance Tools In Schools

Student surveillance technologies disproportionately harm Black, Latine, and Indigenous students, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has revealed. 

The findings come from the ACLU’s “Digital Dystopia” report examining the EdTech Surveillance (educational technologies used for surveillance) industry in US K-12 schools.

Increased surveillance tech in schools

Over the last two decades, the EdTech sector that markets student surveillance products to schools has grown into a $3.1 billion-a-year economic market, with a projected 8% annual growth rate.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, almost 80% of elementary schools have security cameras as part of their security system.

This number rises to about 94% for high schools, causing students to be concerned.

The ACLU report follows a New York state report in August, which advised schools to be cautious when using facial recognition and identifying technology. 

A Digital Dystopia

The ACLU conducted a series of focus groups with over three dozen students from different regions and backgrounds and a YouGov survey of 502 students aged 14-18.

The report found that while buying EdTech Surveillance products may make school districts feel safer, they can actually do the opposite and cause harm.

Data from the US Department of Education revealed that schools in communities of color are more likely to use surveillance tech despite not necessarily facing more significant safety risks.

The ACLU report found that Black and Brown students were at higher risk of harm than their white peers.

They found that where schools use facial recognition technology, Black and Brown students and their family members are misidentified as having engaged in wrongdoing, leading to the risk of criminal arrest.

‘Students feel afraid to express themselves’

Students also reported psychological harms caused by EdTech surveillance, such as feeling like they’re always being watched and concerns about how it could be used to discipline them.

The report also found that technology such as gun detection systems could result in a traumatizing school lockdown or even an armed police response to a school.

These devices have been found to have been used more frequently in schools with greater numbers of Black and Brown students.

The Brennan Center for Justice said, “While none of these methods have been proven effective in deterring violence, similar systems have resulted in diverting resources away from enrichment opportunities, policing school communities to a point where students feel afraid to express themselves.”

“This is placing especially dangerous targets on students of color who are already disproportionately mislabeled and punished.”

The report warns schools against letting fear drive their decision-making and encourages them to explore other, less harmful options to keep students safe.