ABSTRACT
More and more, public schools are becoming part of the network of post9/11, state-sponsored surveillance-spaces in which students experience firsthand what it is to be monitored, feared, contained, and harassed-in the name of safety and security. Across the country, urban and suburban public schools are choosing to respond to issues related to violence and school safety by deploying an array of surveilling techniques and technologies. These include surveillance cameras, metal detectors, scanning wands, security and police personnel, and ID tracking systems. As has been documented in a series of recent reports, however, these measures do not necessarily produce
a safer school environment. Students refer to an increase in the number of violent incidences, attest to harassment they experience at the hands of police and school safety agents, and describe a feeling of danger and disillusion (see Nolan, Chapter 1).
