4 ms·

Despite having heard such stories many times now, they keep amazing me. From a European perspective, the whole thing is insane. I doubt there is a single school

Despite having heard such stories many times now, they keep amazing me. From a European perspective, the whole thing is insane. I doubt there is a single school in the whole of Western Europe with camera's and security guards. The first time I heard about these things, I thought they were excesses that would surely lead to outrage and would be overturned. Instead, these measures gain ground. How can there not be a significant movement to restore the sanity of the USA?

axod 17y ago
The idea of college police and school counsellor are also really hard for me to understand. It's a scary world :/ (I mean scary in the ridiculous measures supposed to 'protect us', not scary because of real threats).
- yalurker 17y ago
  What is hard to understand about a school counselor? They are a point of contact for advice about which classes to take at what time, how to find internships & scholarships, what to put on a resume, etc. It seems like a straight forward and useful job.
ubernostrum 17y ago
(insert obligatory comment about how we're really just trying to catch up to the UK in the War on Youth(TM))
- scotty79 17y ago
  Aren't the adults alway freaking out about youth and trying to contain them as they were wild animals with every measure available?
natrius 17y ago
I thought cameras where everywhere in the UK? That's what the internet tells me, at least.
- jdietrich 17y ago
  There's a substantial cultural gap between the UK and the rest of Europe. We've been described as "in Europe, but not of it" which I think is quite apt. The UK has more security cameras per capita than anywhere else in the world. We have more security cameras than the whole of China. This is in stark contrast to our low-surveillance neighbours on the continent who are used to seeing only a few cameras used to oversee a specific high-risk area. Many inner-city British schools now have security guards and a permanent police presence. In London (where the panic over knife crime is at it's worst) it's not uncommon to find secondary schools with airport-style screening at the front doors.
  - joe_fishfish 17y ago
    It seems that here in the UK we trust our government a lot more than we trust our fellow citizens.
  - jordanb 17y ago
    It occurs to me.. I wonder if there's much correlation between these fear-based policies and the penetration of Rupert Murdoch's news media empire in a country.
- viraptor 17y ago
  Well... UK is UK. I moved here some time ago and to be honest cameras don't bother me that much. It's definitely different than Europe (and a lot of people from UK will say they're going to Europe when they're leaving the country...). I couldn't imagine any guards at school in my home town (central/east Europe), but we had cameras outside - pointed mostly at the bike racks / parking spaces. Something like searching anyone's backpack would never be allowed at my school though, unless police got involved - but then again it would have to be official.
rms 17y ago
In the USA, children have very few rights. :(

axod 17y ago

The idea of college police and school counsellor are also really hard for me to understand. It's a scary world :/ (I mean scary in the ridiculous measures supposed to 'protect us', not scary because of real threats).

yalurker 17y ago
What is hard to understand about a school counselor? They are a point of contact for advice about which classes to take at what time, how to find internships & scholarships, what to put on a resume, etc. It seems like a straight forward and useful job.

ubernostrum 17y ago

(insert obligatory comment about how we're really just trying to catch up to the UK in the War on Youth(TM))

scotty79 17y ago
Aren't the adults alway freaking out about youth and trying to contain them as they were wild animals with every measure available?

natrius 17y ago

I thought cameras where everywhere in the UK? That's what the internet tells me, at least.

jdietrich 17y ago
There's a substantial cultural gap between the UK and the rest of Europe. We've been described as "in Europe, but not of it" which I think is quite apt. The UK has more security cameras per capita than anywhere else in the world. We have more security cameras than the whole of China. This is in stark contrast to our low-surveillance neighbours on the continent who are used to seeing only a few cameras used to oversee a specific high-risk area. Many inner-city British schools now have security guards and a permanent police presence. In London (where the panic over knife crime is at it's worst) it's not uncommon to find secondary schools with airport-style screening at the front doors.
- joe_fishfish 17y ago
  It seems that here in the UK we trust our government a lot more than we trust our fellow citizens.
- jordanb 17y ago
  It occurs to me.. I wonder if there's much correlation between these fear-based policies and the penetration of Rupert Murdoch's news media empire in a country.
viraptor 17y ago
Well... UK is UK. I moved here some time ago and to be honest cameras don't bother me that much. It's definitely different than Europe (and a lot of people from UK will say they're going to Europe when they're leaving the country...). I couldn't imagine any guards at school in my home town (central/east Europe), but we had cameras outside - pointed mostly at the bike racks / parking spaces. Something like searching anyone's backpack would never be allowed at my school though, unless police got involved - but then again it would have to be official.

rms 17y ago

In the USA, children have very few rights. :(