Electronic Eyes In School

High School Students Being Watched By Cameras

(CBS)  Some people may fight for camera time, but not at a high school near San Diego.

Early Show Correspondent Tracy Smith reports budget cuts have forced the school to replace human security staff with cameras that keep an unblinking eye on students' every move. So far, there aren't many complaints.

It's like something out of a spy movie or maybe a shopping center. From the moment someone drives up to West Hills High School in Santee, Calf., they're being watched. Wherever they walk, whoever they're with, whatever they do — the eye in the sky takes it all in. And the man behind the curtain is watching.

There is a lot to watch. The staff is responsible for more than 2,300 students on an 80-acre, unfenced campus. With budget cuts and staff reductions, there just aren't enough pairs of human eyes to go around. So, the cameras take up the slack.

Teachers don't have to be inside to see what's going on with the cameras. They can actually monitor everything from the little handheld PCs. When the system is up and running, they can pull up a student's attendance records, grading history and class schedule. So, you can see where a kid's supposed to be. What students give up in privacy, say advocates, they get back in security.

"We don't really think these cameras are going to keep kids from bringing weapons on campus," says the school's safety coordinator, Joe Schramm. "You can't see inside of backpacks. You really can't stop something like that with a camera. But what we can do is create interpersonal relationships with the kids so they'll let us know if something like that is going to happen."

The students don't seem to mind.

"It makes me feel better about being in school … that somebody's looking out for me, even if they're not physically there," says Amber, a student. "It's unfortunate but it's true. It's kind of a necessary circumstance now."

It may be necessary because of gunfire down the street last year.

In March 2001, a student at neighboring Santana High School brought a gun to school and used it to kill two classmates and injure more than a dozen others.

"When it happens a mile or two down the street, it made me feel like pretty much anything could happen anywhere," says Brian, a student.

So, instead of resenting the all-seeing eye, the kids there have learned to accept it.

"It would be no different than if I sat up there at lunch time with a pair of binoculars," says Schramm. "That's not Big Brother. That's our duty and our obligation to students and their parents to keep them safe. And we're using every means we can. It's just a more technological way to do it."

No major crimes have been caught on camera yet. But the principal says vandalism has nearly ground to a halt since the cameras went into operation.