Question: I would like to know if it is legal to display publicly live CCTV
footage of a classroom with a class in progress at a local school or
college.
we have recently been informed that one of our classrooms that
recently had a theft has been having the CCTV footage shown on the
main screen (big screen) monitor in a public and widely used area of
the college. No other classrooms or areas are being shown. We were not
informed of this in advance and only found out after other students
complained.
is this legal? do we have no right to privacy while in the classroom?
when we complained we were told it is legal because they are showing
live images and not a recording. apparently it only contraveines the
data protection act if a recording is shown.
Answer:Anyone else think this is just daft?
What about the rights of the staff? You could not pay me
enough money to be a teacher, some of the things you hear
pupils doing are appalling (and that's from my own school going
step-children!) I have long advocated CCTV in classrooms,
if it were more widespread I'm sure it would help remove a
lot of problems associated with problem pupils (and problem
teachers for that matter!!) by providing irrefutable evidence.
However, it should be clear that CCTV cameras are being
used (I would have thought the camera would have been a
good sign!) As for displaying in public - so what, *someone*
will be watching the CCTV footage, why not everyone so it
is transparent.
Many shops display their live CCTV footage in-store on monitors
so everyone can see, there's nothing illegal about it.
Long live CCTV! Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.
